Hermione stood outside the back door of The Burrow taking calming breaths. She was about to break the news of her engagement to her friends, and she was incredibly nervous. In Hermione's opinion things could either go very badly or okay. She was praying that her friends would at least give her the chance to speak and they could learn to accept Draco, but she knew there was a chance they would react badly and refuse to listen to anything she had to say.
Plucking up the courage to go inside, Hermione opened the back door and stepped into the familiar kitchen. The kitchen was completely empty and standing in the doorway Hermione couldn't hear a sound throughout the house. It would appear as though everyone was out and Hermione was torn between being relieved or being annoyed. Part of her was pleased she could delay announcing her news, but part of her was keyed up to let everyone know how happy she was.
In case anyone was at home and she just hadn't spotted them, Hermione entered the house. As she searched the ground floor of The Burrow, Hermione twirled her engagement ring nervously around her finger. Several times it almost slid off her finger, but the constant movement kept it on her finger.
It soon became clear that there was no-one in and Hermione tried to decide whether to wait or come back later. She thought Harry and Ron had mentioned that would only be at the Ministry for the morning, but she knew they could easily get distracted and end up staying all day. And if the rest of the family were all busy there was a chance she could be alone for the remainder of the afternoon. Deciding to leave and come back later, Hermione turned and headed for the kitchen door.
Just as Hermione began to open the door she heard a thumping noise upstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps walking about. Knowing even if she shouted upstairs whoever was up there wasn't guaranteed of hearing, Hermione made her way over to the stairs and began to climb them. More than likely she would find Molly changing the beds or doing housework to get her mind off things.
Hermione had climbed up the first flights of stairs and she was faced with a door that was opening just as she emerged onto the landing. Just as the door swung open, revealing who she had heard, Hermione woke up with a start.
"Are you okay?"
Hermione blinked rapidly as she took in her surroundings. She wasn't in The Burrow, she was lying on the sofa in the penthouse. Draco had clearly just entered the room and he was looking at her in concern. She'd awoken the exact same way the previous afternoon when they're returned from the hospital, and again that morning in bed. Both times she'd been dreaming about the day of her accident, but that time was so much clearer than the previous two dreams.
"Hermione?" Draco prompted when his fiancée remained quiet.
"Sorry. I'm fine," Hermione said as she sat up.
"Were you dreaming about last Friday again?" Draco questioned as he took a seat next to her.
"Yes, it's becoming clearer," Hermione answered. When she'd first woke up after her accident she could remember visiting The Burrow and heading upstairs, but now she could remember all the details, except for who was behind the door.
"But you still don't know who you saw," Draco guessed.
Hermione shook her head in frustration. "No. It's so close Draco, I was almost there this time."
"Don't push and it'll come," Draco reassured his fiancé. "One time when you have this dream, you'll remember the rest of it."
"I do remember one more thing, it's about my ring," Hermione said. "I was nervous and I was constantly twirling it around my finger. There's a good chance it was loose when I fell and just slipped off my finger. Maybe it's lying around The Burrow somewhere."
"I've already told you, Kingsley tried summoning it when he was there and he didn't find it," Draco said gently. He knew Hermione didn't want to believe any of her friends had been responsible for her accident, but the missing ring was definitely suspicious. "If the ring was at The Burrow and someone found it, why haven't they said anything?"
"I don't know," Hermione whispered quietly. "I just don't want to believe any of them could be responsible for my accident."
"Maybe they're not, but someone is responsible for taking your ring and I want to know why they took it," Draco answered. "You can always double check if anyone has found a ring when the Weasleys arrive this afternoon. In fact they could be here any minute."
"I'll have to go and tidy up," Hermione said as Draco helped her to her feet. "If anyone arrives before I get back, be polite. I don't want any trouble, Draco."
"You'll not get any from me," Draco promised as Hermione made her way to the bedroom and adjoining bathroom.
By the time Hermione had used the bathroom and tided herself up a bit she could hear talking coming from the front room. However she doubted the voices belonged to Harry and the Weasleys as she could also hear Draco's voice and she doubted her fiancé would be chatting with the family of redhead's so easily. When she emerged from the bedroom she found she was right and the voices didn't belong to her friends, they belonged to Lucius and Narcissa.
"We came to see how you were feeling," Narcissa said as Hermione settled herself back down on the sofa. "Draco says you're expecting the Weasleys, we can go if it's going to cause problems."
"Stay," Hermione told her future parents-in-law. "Everyone is going to have to learn to get along, so we might as well start as we mean to go on."
"I promise we'll be on our best behaviour," Narcissa promised before shooting her husband a warning look to ensure he behaved himself.
Lucius begrudgingly promised he would behave just as the floo network lit up and Harry emerged into the front room. Seconds later Ginny and Ron followed him, before the rest of the family arrived. By the time everyone had arrived the only missing person was Fred, who was still in hospital and therefore unable to visit.
"Wow, this place is spectacular," George commented as the family took turns in hugging Hermione and letting her know how pleased they were she was alright. "What do you have to do to get a place like this?"
"Since it's a Malfoy property you have to marry a Malfoy," Draco told the redhead as they shook hands and exchanged friendly greetings.
"For a place like this I might just be tempted," George joked. "You should think yourself lucky that Hermione got to you first."
Totally taken aback by George's comment, Draco gaped at the grinning redhead. George burst out laughing at Draco's shocked expression, as did a few other members of the family that had overheard the conversation.
"You'll get used to George," Charlie offered a stunned Draco. "I would say he's unique, but he's got Fred and they're like two peas in a pod."
"A lively pod," Draco muttered.
"There's no point being boring," George replied with a shrug. "I leave that to other members of the family," He whispered, gesturing in Percy's direction.
Draco couldn't help but chuckle at George's dig at his brother. He could remember Percy from school and he didn't think he'd ever met anyone as pompous and serious as Percy had been. Clearly he hadn't lightened up any since school and was still rather boring.
"What are you lot sniggering at?" Hermione called, watching her fiancé, Charlie and George with a smile.
She was pleased that at least some of the Weasleys were making an effort with Draco and his family. After saying hello, Ron had settled down with a scowl on his face and Molly could barely disguise her disgust at finding Lucius and Narcissa in the penthouse. Luckily Arthur had nodded politely at Lucius, before Bill engaged her future father-in-law in conversation. Fleur meanwhile had started a conversation with Narcissa about France and a small wizarding village just outside Paris they both loved to visit.
"You should be grateful they're all getting along," Ginny said to Hermione as she perched on the sofa next to her friend.
"I am," Hermione told her friend. "But something tells me Draco could be led astray by the twins, and possibly even Charlie."
"He's a Slytherin, I'm sure he can hold his own with them," Harry chuckled from the other side of Hermione.
Hermione smiled up at her friend, pleased that he seemed to be willing to give Draco a chance. Ron was clearly still brooding over what had happened at the hospital, whereas it looked as though Harry was trying to put the past behind them and move on.
"Does anyone want any tea?" Hermione offered.
"Don't you dare get up, you're supposed to be resting," Draco insisted when it appeared that Hermione was going to get up. "I'll go and make the tea."
"Never thought I'd see the day a Malfoy made tea," George joked.
"You get to witness it first hand, come and help," Draco said.
"Honestly, fancy getting your guests to make their own tea. You need to work on your hosting skills," George joking grumbled as he followed Draco into the kitchen.
Five minutes later Draco and George had made the tea and everyone was settled down with a drink. Initially there was an awkward atmosphere in the room, but once Molly asked Hermione how she was doing things started to get better. Hermione explained about her headaches and that she needed to rest because she was still sore, but everyone was relieved to hear there would be no permanent damage due to her fall.
"How's your memory?" Bill asked. "Kingsley mentioned you can't remember your actual accident."
"I still can't," Hermione replied. "But the day is becoming clearer in my mind. In fact I think I might just have dropped my ring, and I was hoping someone would have found it."
"Kingsley tried summoning the ring and it wasn't in The Burrow," Arthur told Hermione. "I wish it was just lying about and someone had found it, but it's not there I'm afraid. Sorry, Hermione."
"It was worth a try," Hermione said, smiling at the older wizard. "I was just hoping it would turn up."
"We all are," Ron muttered. "Maybe then our family will stop being falsely accused."
"No-one's accusing anybody, Ron," Hermione said softly, wishing she hadn't mentioned her missing ring.
"It doesn't appear that way to us," Ron snapped.
"That's enough Ron," Arthur scolded his son. He'd spoken to Ron about behaving before they left to visit Hermione and he was annoyed that his son seemingly hadn't bothered to listen to him.
"Have you considered the ring was taken at the hospital?" Molly asked. "I'm sure plenty of staff at St Mungo's dealt with Hermione when she was first admitted."
"The director of the hospital is checking out that possibility," Lucius replied, much to everyone's shock. He hadn't even mentioned the internal investigation that had been launched at St Mungo's to his family so this was the first they were hearing about it.
"When did you arrange that?" Draco asked his father.
"Days ago," Lucius answered. "I want every possible scenario investigated. The ring may have disappeared from The Burrow, but it also may have disappeared from the hospital."
"Or is there any chance it's here?" Molly asked, looking around the vast penthouse. "Hermione, how sure are you that you even had your ring with you on Friday?"
"I'm a hundred percent sure I had my ring," Hermione answered. "I hadn't removed it since Draco gave it to me."
"Besides, we searched the penthouse on Monday when we found out Hermione was in hospital and her ring was missing," Draco added.
"It's a big place, you may have missed somewhere," Molly replied.
"We tried summoning it, but if that isn't good enough for you we can try again," Lucius snapped, pulling out his wand. Before anyone could argue with the blond wizard he waved his wand and summoned Hermione's ring. "Accio Hermione's engagement ring."
No-one really expected anything to happen so everyone was stunned when Hermione's ring suddenly floated out of the bag sitting at Fleur's feet and landed in Lucius's hand. Hermione watched in shock and as she did so a memory cleared in her head. Suddenly the door at the Burrow was opening and she could see who was behind the door.
"It was you," Hermione whispered, looking at Fleur. "You were the one upstairs."
Silence reigned for a minute before Fleur broke down in tears as people started demanding answers from her.
"Everyone shut up," Bill shouted. Once the room was silent again, he turned to his crying wife. "What's going on Fleur? Why do you have Hermione's ring?"
"I'm so sorry," Fleur sobbed. "This was never meant to happen."
"What was never meant to happen?" Bill asked. "What happened Fleur?"
With tear filled eyes Fleur looked up at Hermione, before shifting his focus away from the brunette witch. In a quiet voice she then began to explain what had happened the day of Hermione's accident.
A/N – The next chapter is the explanation of what happened, and after that there's an epilogue. Then this story is finished and it's onto the next one.
I also want to think everyone for their amazing reviews and support for this story. As always, I appreciate the wonderful people on this site so much. It really does make sharing my stories worth it.
