A/N: Yay, early update! I love how excited you guys got for Narcissa's appearance! It was awesome. Thanks for all the love you guys; it means a lot!

Tallyho!

Chapter 14:

A few mornings later, Hermione was the first to wake. After a quick shower, she went downstairs to make a quick cup of tea before grabbing a book and enjoying the quiet in the house. As she reached the living room, however, she discovered that she wasn't the only one with that idea.

"Oh, sorry Mrs. Malfoy, I didn't know you were in here."

Narcissa put her copy of the Daily Prophet down and gave Hermione a small smile. "No, please come in. I wouldn't mind the company."

Hermione smiled and curled up on the other end of the couch that Narcissa was sitting on.

"How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you." Narcissa said.

Hermione nodded and smiled. Narcissa went back to reading her paper while Hermione read her book. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while until Narcissa broke it.

"So, you and Draco," she started.

Hermione choked on her tea and coughed. "What?"

Narcissa smirked. "I'm not blind, Miss Granger. I know there's something going on between you two."

"D-did Draco say something?"

She shook her head. "He didn't need to. I can see it in the way you two look at each other. That, and I know you two share a room."

Hermione huffed. "I told him I should have moved into a different room," she muttered.

Narcissa chuckled. "Look, Mrs. Malfoy, I can explain-" Hermione started.

"There's no need." Narcissa said. "It's okay."

"W-what? Really?"

She nodded. "I'm not going to pretend that I completely understand, but I see the way his eyes light up when he looks at you. He smiles more often, he's more determined, he's… I can't describe it but I haven't seen him like this in a long time. He seems… happy."

Hermione gave her a small smile. "Do you love him?" Narcissa asked.

Hermione's smile fell a bit as she looked at her boyfriend's mother. She licked her lips in anxiety before nodding. "Yes."

"And does Draco return these feelings?"

She nodded meekly.

Narcissa nodded in return and was silent for a moment. "Okay."

Hermione was taken aback. "Okay? Okay what?"

She gave her a small smile. "Just okay. I'm not going to tell you to stay away from him; he's an adult, he can make his own decisions. All I ask is that you watch out for him. Don't let him do anything stupid."

Hermione chuckled. "No promises."

Narcissa smirked and Hermione ran her fingers through her hair. "Well… that went easier than I expected." Narcissa laughed.

Hermione looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Please, enough with the formalities. Call me Narcissa."

"Only if you call me Hermione."

The blonde smiled. "Deal."

Hermione returned the smile. Just then, Draco walked downstairs. When he caught sight of his girlfriend and mother sitting together and smiling, he immediately became suspicious and confused. "Should I be worried?" he asked.

"Good morning to you too." Narcissa joked.

"Should you be worried about what?" Hermione asked a bit too innocently.

He stuttered for a moment before throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head as he wandered off to the kitchen muttering to himself. Hermione shook her head. "I should probably go let him know that you know."

"Actually… don't." Narcissa said with a gleam in her eye. "Let him sweat it out for a bit."

Hermione laughed and shook her head. "He'd figure it out. I'm a terrible liar."

Narcissa shrugged and laughed. "So am I."

Both women broke into a fit of giggles which turned into full blown laughter as Draco walked back into the room with an even more confused look on his face than before. He watched the two with apprehension as Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. "Hi." she said, breathlessly.

"Uh, hi?"

Suddenly, there was shuffling coming from upstairs and a loud thud. Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up. "I should go make some coffee for the boys." she said, as she was still chuckling. She walked into the kitchen, ignoring Draco's confused expression. When he looked back to his mother, she was smiling at him. He walked in and sat down where Hermione was on the couch.

"Care to explain what that was about?"

She pursed her lips. "Hermione and I had a very nice chat."

He raised his eyebrows at his mother's use of his girlfriend's first name. "Really? What about?"

Narcissa leaned back against the arm of the couch. "You, actually."

His eyes widened. "What?"

She smirked. "Oh, please, you couldn't hide it from me forever. But don't worry, I like her."

"Really?" he asked, his brows furrowed.

She nodded and smiled. Draco was speechless; he definitely didn't see that coming. "W-why? I mean you spouted as much pureblood bullshit as dad did."

She frowned at her son. "Watch your language. As for what we believed, you and I both know that they're wrong. Muggleborns are no different than us; I learned that a while ago. Haven't you wondered why Andromeda was here with me the night I was rescued? Or why she's been checking up on me and why we're getting along?"

He nodded. "It did cross my mind, yes."

"A month or so after you disappeared, I sent a letter to Andy apologizing and begging for help. I was worried sick over you and your father; my only companion was Severus and you know how much of a comfort he is." Draco snorted. "She was surprisingly very forgiving and willing to help me… cope with your disappearance, if you will. We kept in contact through enchanted letters so that no one could read them except her and me. After your… death," she choked on the word, "I was inconsolable. No one could calm me down, not even your father. No one except her. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to convince me that everything was going to be okay. Little did I know, then, how right she was." She ran her fingers through Draco's hair which caused him to smile. They were silent as Harry and Ron came downstairs and walked into the kitchen, paying no mind to the two Slytherins in the living room.

Narcissa sighed. "Reconnecting with Andy has reopened my world to so many different things and ideas but none as different as seeing what she always saw: that whether we're muggleborn, pureblood, half-blood, it doesn't matter. It never did. Your lineage doesn't define who you are as a person or a wizard. And seeing you see that and defy tradition is… wonderful because that means that maybe I didn't royally screw up as a mum after all."

"You could never screw up, mum. You were mislead, like I was, and that led to making a few mistakes. But that's how we learn right?"

She smiled at her son, thinking that's what she had just said about Lucius a couple days ago. She kept that thought silent though and just sighed. "When did you get so wise?"

He shrugged. "Around the same time that the world started to fall apart."

Narcissa's eyes softened as she gave him a sad smile. Just then, an array of voices came out of the dining room as Harry and Ron followed Hermione into the piano room. "Oi! Malfoy, you coming?" he heard Ron yell.

Draco sighed and patted his mom's hand before getting up and going to the piano room which was still in the process of being transformed. Little did he know that his mother had followed him.

"Woah." Narcissa said.

"My words exactly." Draco told her.

Hermione smiled at her. "You get used to it after a while. Have you come to watch?"

Narcissa sobered and smiled at the brunette. "Um well, yes, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all." She conjured a chair in the corner of the room. "Help yourself; maybe you can give us some advice."

Harry and Ron's eyebrows raised while Draco shook his head. "Bad idea, Granger, she gives terrible advice- ow!" he said as he put his hand to the back of his head where his mother had smacked him.

"I do not give terrible advice." she said, challenging her son.

"Mum, the last time you gave me advice, I ended up swimming with the Giant Squid!"

"That was your own fault. I said go look by the Black Lake, not in it."

Draco was about to retort before Ron interrupted. "You did what?"

He huffed. "Back in Third Year, I was looking up herbs for Herbology by the Black Lake. In the process, I tripped on a rock and ended up falling in the water and came face to face with the Giant Squid."

Ron coughed back his laugh while Harry smirked and Hermione just rolled her eyes. Draco glared at his mother who merely smirked as she sat in the chair Hermione had conjured for her. Hermione shook her head before she ushered Draco closer to the boys.

"Today, we're working on two different lessons: teamwork and individual defense," she started. "Or in other words: three against one."

All three boys eyes widened. "What?" Harry asked.

"There's going to be times where we may be on our own while fighting more than one person and whenever we've been working in teams, we've been working in pairs. It's better that we learn to work together in more than that because there may also be times where it's more than two of us fighting someone."

Draco's brows furrowed at his girlfriend but shrugged in agreement. Harry and Ron mumbled agreements as well. "Ron, you're up first." Hermione said.

The redhead gulped as he switched places with Hermione. Draco glanced quickly at his mother, who had set up a shield charm around her to protect her from any stray spells, before looking back at Ron and gripping his wand tight. "Go!" Hermione yelled.

Immediately a flash of red came towards Draco but he reacted quickly and put up a shield charm while Hermione and Harry sent some spells flying towards Ron. It continued like that for the rest of the day. It took Ron a couple of tries before he got the hang of defending himself but was able to stun both Harry and Hermione before Draco disarmed him. After Ron was Harry. He seemed to be ready as soon as he took his place; immediately he sent a disarming charm towards Hermione but she ducked out of the way causing the spell to bounce off the wall and hit Narcissa's shield charm but the Slytherin didn't flinch as she was too fascinated by the training session.

Initially, it was thought that Hermione would be Harry's match and keep him on his toes when it came to fighting but to everyone's surprise, Draco matched him much better. They were able to continuously throw spells and hexes at one another while Harry protected himself from the other spells coming his way from Hermione and Ron. Finally, Hermione called it even and switched Draco and Harry. Despite that they were dating now, Hermione didn't let up on Draco during training; if anything, she seemed to throw hard spells at him on purpose just to throw him off. Draco used to think that if he ever got into a fight with Harry and Ron he could probably hold his own but with Hermione on their side, it became more difficult to do so. But he fought back twice as hard anyway. It was very similar to when Harry was put on the spot. It was only when Harry got stunned that Hermione ended that round.

Last up, was the Gryffindor Princess herself. Within the first few minutes, she was out of breath from fighting off the multiple hexes that were getting thrown at her. Her round didn't last long though as she managed to deflect a stunning spell that Ron sent her and directed it back towards him causing him to fall over. She then stunned Harry before he had a chance to disarm her then turned to Draco and froze. Both were pointing their wands at one another but neither moved; the only sound in the room was their breathing. They stared at each other waiting for the other to make a move but nothing happened. Finally, Draco lowered his wand and stepped back causing Hermione to do the same. She slowly turned around to walk a few feet away.

Then, at the same time both threw spells at each other.

"Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!"

There was a loud clap as the spells collided with one another and the impact was powerful enough that both Hermione and Draco were knocked to the floor. Both groaned as they sat up. Ron lent his hand out to Hermione to help her up as Harry offered his hand to Draco. The Slytherin was surprised by the offer and eyed the Gryffindor suspiciously before taking his hand to help him up. As he stood up, he nodded to Harry in thanks before dusting off his trousers. When he looked up, his eyes met Hermione's and she gave him a small nod of approval before they heard a series of applause coming from the corner of the room. Taking down her shield charm, Narcissa stood up and walked towards them.

"Very nice. I have to admit, I was concerned when Draco told me about this training you all were doing but I'm impressed; you're all much more advanced than I thought you were."

Hermione nodded. "Thank you. Do you have any advice on anything we could work on more?"

Narcissa nodded. "For the most part, it seems that you have a good grasp of defensive and protective spells, although I think you should work on some non-verbal spells as well. The biggest thing that stuck out to me, though, is all four of you seem to struggling to really focus; you, especially, Ron." The redhead's eyes widened as Narcissa addressed him directly. She continued. "I understand that you're trying to pay attention to everything that's going on around you, which is good; you want to be aware of everything and everyone. But doing so, can also distract you and cause problems. The best way to focus is to hone in on your senses and reflexes. Focus on one thing: your target, for example, then let your senses take over. Let your ears hear the other people around you, let your body feel where you are or what you're doing (your feet on the floor or your hand on your wand), if you can, let your eyes see what's going on but if you can't, keep your eyes on your target at all times. Don't let this distract you, though; instead, let it strengthen you and teach you to stay focused while also being aware of your surroundings." She paused for a moment. "Did any of that make sense?"

Hermione nodded while the boys looked amongst themselves uncomfortably. Narcissa chuckled. "Let me show you an example. Hermione, could you come here please?"

Harry and Ron both looked at Draco in confusion over his mother's use of Hermione's first name but he merely shrugged. Ignoring the boys' befuddled expressions, Hermione took a deep breath before walking into the middle of the room with Narcissa. "Close your eyes," the blonde commanded.

Hermione complied. "Good," Narcissa continued, "Right now, I just want you to focus on your breathing. Don't think about anything else: just breathe. Now, when you're ready, let your senses take over. Hear the rain outside and the sound of your breathing, feel the floor beneath your feet and your wand in your hand. Allow yourself to become aware of all these things while continuing to focus on your breathing. You may begin to feel your instincts trying to kick in; don't fight them, listen to them. And when you're ready, open your eyes."

Hermione took another breath before opening her eyes. When she did, she found Draco standing in front of her instead of Narcissa. She looked to her left where she found Narcissa standing with Harry and Ron. "Try and duel," she said.

Hermione looked back at her boyfriend who was gripping his wand tight now. She smirked at him before throwing a bat-bogey hex towards him. He managed to dodge it and threw a tickling spell towards her but she threw up a shield charm before it could hit her. Spells began to fly back and forth between the two like a firework show as they tried whatever they could to defeat the other. Draco, unfortunately, was getting tired a lot quicker than Hermione was which came to her advantage as she was finally able to disarm him, therefore ending their duel.

Both were out of breath when they were done but Hermione was smiling victoriously. She had been in a zone while duelling with Draco. She couldn't describe what she was feeling but all she knew was that she had never felt more in control during a duel and she loved it.

"How do you feel?" the blonde asked.

She laughed. "Great! I've never felt more in control. That was amazing!"

Narcissa chuckled. "That is what I mean by needing to be focused while fighting. Nothing distracts you, you're focused on your target, but you're also aware of your surroundings which is important in case someone comes to attack you from behind, you need to be prepared."

Draco looked at his girlfriend. Her hair was wild, her cheeks were rosy, and there were beads of sweat falling down her forehead but her eyes were filled with fire and determination. While duelling, he hadn't ever thought he'd seen her look so intimidating and he was right. She wasn't just the brightest witch of their age, she was also an incredible fighter who knew how to get the job done. He'd never been more relieved that she was on the Light side.

Narcissa taught the same trick to the boys and by the end of the session, all four were sweating and out of breath but they felt fantastic. Ron made significant progress during the lesson and he felt exhilarated as did Harry and Draco. Narcissa and Hermione smiled at one another as the boys separated to clean up after an exhausting day of training. They would continue to practice that new method throughout the rest of their training sessions and Narcissa would occasionally watch and give advice as well. All four were improving every day with their training and they all felt much more in control of the situation when practicing.

They could only hope that it would be enough when the time finally came to put their skills to good use.