Stolen Love
Chapter fourteen
The day dawned bright and early and Draco and Hermione could be found in the Grangers' fenced in back yard, getting ready to apparate to Draco's manor.
"Bye, Mum and Dad, see you this summer," Hermione said tearfully giving her parents long hugs.
"Bye Mr. and Ms. Granger and thanks for having me at your house." Draco said politely shaking John's hand and bending to give a tearful Carol a hug.
"No problem Draco, your such a sweet heart," Ms. Granger said with a sniff
"You take care of my baby girl," Mr. Granger said sternly, but Draco merely smiled and nodded as Hermione took hold of his arm, and with that Draco spun on the spot and with a small 'pop' he, Hermione and their trunks disappeared.
Miles away somewhere in the country of England, He and Hermione arrived at a gate. The gate opened and the two began to make their way up the long drive, Hermione ringing her hands in nervousness. Shrubs and trees lined the drive, and the two were holding hands and levitating their trunks slowly behind them.
They turned a curve and the massive grey manor loomed into view. A large black door stood at the top of a pair of steps, and many widows loomed black against the grey stone. Draco squeezed his girls' hand reassuringly, and as they neared the steps Draco began to murmur under his breath just loud enough that Hermione could hear,
"three…two…one…" and with that the door flew open and in a rush of dark green robes stood Narcissa Malfoy. Tall with pretty elegant features, light blue eyes, and flowing blonde hair that now held the occasional silver streaks. Hermione's stunned expression made Draco give a small snort of laughter before he was engulfed in a hug from his beautiful mother.
"Oh, Draco I've missed you so much, it's been so lonely here without anyone to talk to," Ms. Malfoy said still clinging to her son.
"MUUUUM, I can't breathe!" Draco whined from inside his mothers embrace while he watched Hermione snicker behind her hand.
"Sorry," Narcissa said pulling back and dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief she pulled from her sleeve, then she saw Hermione.
"Oh Draco dear, she's beautiful" The woman said staring at Hermione who was blushing a deep red.
"Mother, this is my girlfriend Hermione Granger, Hermione this is my mother…Narcissa Malfoy," Draco introduced
"Hello Ms. Malfoy," Hermione said with a polite smile.
"Hello Hermione come on inside," Narcissa said making her way into the large entry way, "Draco show Hermione to her room, and then we'll eat some lunch." The elder said turning down a hallway as Draco lead Hermione up a set of swooping stairs.
The manor was decorated in silver, green, and black, portraits of beautiful people with platinum blonde hair and grey eyes, lined the walls and their whispers gave the house and eerie feeling. It was dark and foreboding and Hermione wondered weather Draco truly enjoyed growing up there.
Hermione tried to count the turns and after the second right and fourth left and another right she lost count, Draco turned so many times she had a hard time keeping up with him, but he would grab her hand and pull her along reassuringly. Finally Draco opened a door and led her in. It was painted crème and had black and dark green accents, but besides the slytherin colors it was a very handsome room, with hardwood furnishings and expensive fabrics.
Hermione smiled as she turned to Draco, "where's your room?" she said with a smirk, Draco smiled wolfishly and led her to the door directly across the hall, which vaguely resembled his room at Hogwarts, Slytherin through and through.
As he let down his trunk Hermione came up to him and wrapped him in a hug, and rested her head on his chest taking in his clean spicy smell and he rested his chin on her head breathing the light sent of her Vanilla shampoo.
The time at Malfoy Manor was enjoyable but slightly stiff, Narcissa was kind as ever but the large house seemed to diminish the happiness. The emptiness seemed to suck in all life and it was slightly depressing, the grey eyes of the portraits followed her with glares, and faint whispers of "mudblood" could be heard from the shadows. The feeling that Lucius was going to pop out at you from a corner got ever stromger as the days bore on, yet Hermione kept her thoughts to herself and tried to enjoy herself as much as possible. Soon it was time to go to the burrow and Hermione was ecstatic.
Draco and Hermione left the manor later in the afternoon, due to Ms. Malfoy's fussing. This time Draco took Hermione's arm as she spun into that uncomfortable black tube. They arrived in the yard and Hermione dragged Draco who was levitating the trunks, they passed a stray chicken and it was then that Draco actually got a good look at the burrow.
It was leaning slightly to the side and looked as if a couple stories had been added, but it looked homey and inviting. Hermione had asked Harry, Ginny, and Ron to explain to the rest of the Wesley's her and Draco's Veela situation. They finally reached the small wooden door and it was flown open before they could reach it and Hermione was engulfed in a hug, by a red-head that vaguely looked like Ginny, Draco smiled as Ginny detached herself from Hermione and gave him a brief hug.
"How ya doing little red?" Draco asked as she pulled away
"Good," she replied
"Yeah?" Draco asked, Ginny had become like a little sister to him he didn't know how it happened but he didn't mind, Gin was a good kid.
Ginny turned back towards the door before replying, "Yeah."
Draco smiled as he followed the two girls inside. The room was filled with red-headed Weasleys' and it made Draco slightly nauseous. Hermione was being pilled with hugs so Draco retreated to the shadows where he found a smiling Harry.
"Hey," Draco said
"Hey, how's it going?" Harry replied still watching the family.
"Good," Draco said before he found he was being pulled to the center of the room, and being glared at by an army of red-heads.
"this is Draco Malfoy as you very well know, and you all know our dilemma…all though that's not really an issue any more, I expect all of you to be civil," Hermione stated her hands on her hips and to Draco's surprise their was a chorus of, "yes, Hermione" before he was being dragged to meet people.
First he met Bill who had his arm wrapped around his wife, Fleur, and gave him a glare of contempt. Draco merely grinned nervously, and shook his hand trying to be nice for Hermione's sake. Next came Charlie who ran his eyes over Draco as if seizing him up for a fight, a shake of hands and he was on to the next brother. Percy gave a sniff when they shook hands. Fred and George both tried to slip him a pukeing pastel which was confiscated by an angry Hermione, who gave them a stern talking to in which they had to apologize to Draco, who mumbled an embarrassed, "its ok." Ron shook his hand civily and then Draco had to meet Mr. and Ms. Weasley.
Mr. Weasley eyed Draco but gave his hand to be shaken none-the-less, but so far Ms. Weasley and Ginny were Draco's favorite Weasleys.
Ms. Weasley gave Draco a large teary hug and then said, "oh Draco dear, you are very handsome, but your looking sort of peaky would you like some stew?" Draco grinned before replying smoothly, "Oh no Ms. Weasley I can wait for dinner, and you're very beautiful yourself," Ms. Weasley blushed and bustled off to make him some stew anyway, in which Draco ate with great gusto.
Everyone retreated to the living room where Draco ended up sandwiched between Fred and George, but within twenty minutes the three were conversing on joke ideas and the twins had given Hermione their approval by shooting obvious suggestive glances between the two.
At Dinner Draco ended up between Bill and Charlie and across from Percy, but by desert Bill and he had discussed Gringotts and how the economy was slowly heading down hill, Charlie and Draco had had an informative conversation on the extinct African Hubo Dragon, and he and Percy had discussed the ministry and some of their new laws. The three eldest boys came to Hermione after dinner with best wishes and approval.
Meanwhile Mr. and Ms. Weasley had been observing Draco and Hermione all through the afternoon and after seeing the love first hand they cornered Hermione before bed to offer their support.
Hermione was so happy, her second family had accepted Draco and it was more than she could hope for, life was perfect.
The next day Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Draco, and Ron, made their way to Kings cross to take the train back to Hogwarts. Exams were coming up, and Hermione was freaking out…but what else is new.
We could
Pack up and leave all our things behind
No fact or fiction or storyline
Cause I need you more than just for tonight
You're oh oh all I care
I can't stop my breathing in
I'm weak and you were my medicine
I won't stop till I am under your skin
-Five Minutes to Midnight by Boys like Girls.