so here it is, the last complete chapter that i have previously written out. the beginning of the next chapter was written before, and i'll indicate that, but this is the final complete chapter. please, review! esp. if you want your input considered! i will make a special comment to everyone who puts out an idea that i end up using!!
Read, Review, and Enjoy!!
"Narcissa darling how are you?" a witch who was dressed in red and green colored robes with a ridiculus hat creid when Hermione and Narcissa walked into a store in hogsmeade. It was on the opposite side of town from the school, the part the students rearely went to. Hermione had never even known it was there. It was actually a beautiful store, with the finest items she ever seen. Silks, cashmeres, diamonds, it was so much to take in.
"Happy Christmas Melinda, I am well and your self?" Narcissa asked removing her cloak. Hermoine did the same, but her eyes wandered around the store at its grandeur. Narcissa watched as Hermione took it all in, and couldn't help but get a smile to her face.
"quite well Narcissa, thank you for asking," Melinda replied as the two women hugged hello. "this must be Pansy." Hermione's attention snapped to the witch in the colorful robes. "Narcissa wrote about you very fondly in her owl last night, it's a pleasure to meet you." Hermione blushed.
"nice to meet you too," she said shaking hands. Melinda glanced over her once and then turned to Narcissa.
"and she is dating your son?" Melinda asked and Narcissa nodded, smile on her face.
"He is one very lucky boy," she said and a smile crept up onto Hermione's face.
"I'd like to think of my self as the lucky one," Hermione replied and Melinda put an arm on her shoulder.
"isn't she so modest Cissa?" she asked and the women laughed. "now lets see where to begin? I selected all the dresses in your size last night and tucked them in the fitting room for you, we can do any and all alterations if need be. What kind of dress were you looking for? Silk? Stain? Strapless? Long sleeved? Blue? Red? Black?" Melinda said grabbing Hermione by the arm and dragging her back into a fitting room that had two chairs, and a table with a tea pot sitting expectingly on it. in the middle of the room was a platform on which Hermione was instructed to stand as she tried on each dress. The lighting was bright, but perfect, it made her feel like a supermodel, and she hadn't even tried a dress on yet.
Narcissa watched as Hermione took it all in, eyes wide as snitches.
"Melinda we don't want to over whelm the poor girl," Narcissa said scolding yet affectionately.
"of course not, lets see. Well first you have beautiful black hair, so that eliminates the black dresses, we don't want to blend too much dear, but if you like the dark dress we could always do a navy blue. Your figure, hmm, not strapless, no, not cuffed either," she said eliminating from the hundreds of dresses that lined the room. "do you have a preference in anything?" she asked taking Hermione opnion into consideration.
"no, not at all," Hermione said as she eyed the dresses, dying to try them on. After a few more minutes of eliminating dresses, Melinda went back into the shop as more people came in with promises of returning later.
"which would you like to try on first?" Narcissa asked standing.
"oh Mrs. Malfoy, they're all so beautiful," Hermione said as she began to undo her robe.
"Pansy please, call me Narcissa," she said and Hermione smiled and nodded.
"which do you think?" Herminoe asked, valuing her opinion.
"hmm, how about an elegant emerald?" she asked picking up a dress that was quite beautiful. Hermione tried it on and liked how it fell, but it was obvious that they both thought she could do better. for two hours they continued trying on dresses, ohing and ahing creating piles of yes, no, and maybes for dresses.
"tea time girls, you need a break. Drink up and then you can continue to try on," Melinda said poking her head in the room and carrying a tray of tea. Hermione, picking up the bottom of a pink frou frou dress that was most certainly a no trudged over to the setee and sat down, nearly getting lost in the dress its self. Attempting to push it down so she could see, she found Narcissa's smiling face.
"here dear," she said and with some magic shrunk the fringes of the dress.
"thank you," Hermione smiled repositioning her self. As Hermione diantly took a sip of tea, Narcissa continued to stare at her fondly. A wave of emotions sweeping over her, her eyes began to tear.
"Narcissa, are you okay?" Hermione asked putting her cup of tea down.
"oh yes, I'm fine," she said, her hand rushing up to her face and wiping away the escaping tear.
"are, are you crying?" Hermione asked worried that she did or knew something. Narcissa laughed in that manner one does when they feel like an idiot for crying.
"you must forgive me, its just that when I look at you, I just picture her and how she could have been, would have been just like you," Narcissa replied looking down, even more tears starting to build up.
"Who?" Hermione asked contemplating for a moment before she decided on asking.
"you can tell Draco," she said looking up and Hermione nodded. "before having Draco, I had been pregnant many times," she stopped trying to phrase what she wanted to say.
"Narcissa, many women loose their child before birth," Hermione said trying to comfort her. Narcissa shook her head.
"when I reached a certain point in my pregnancy, Lucius would do a spell to find out if the baby were a boy or a girl, every time it was a girl, and everytime he would give me a speech saying that the heir to the Malfoy's could not be a girl, and he would abort the baby. Time after time he did this, until the last time I was pregnant before Draco. I hadn't told him I was pregnant, and when I was able to do the spell and found out that it was infact a girl I would be having, I decided against telling him. I figured, hoped rather, that if I had the child, once I had the child, he would forget about her being the heir, forget about power and money, and just love his child. So I placed a concealment charm on my self, over my stomach so no one could see the bump that was growing. After I had the child, Lucius found out. For just one moment I saw him hold the baby, I saw love in his eyes for that child, I thought, for just a moment that we would keep her. Instead, he began yelling at me, telling me that I should have never hidden this from him, to say goodbye because he was now going to kill her. Oh Pansy, I begged, pleaded with him, screamed at him, I tried to get her, Avina back, tried to pull her from her father's arms. But he turned on his heel and I heard him say the spell right outside the door. I fell to the ground, and swore that I would kill him, but I couldn't." both women were crying now, Hermione hand on her heart. She was seeing a new side to the Malfoy's, making some less evil and some more.
"everyday I think of that baby, I think of what she would have done, what she would look like, everything. I know it sounds foolish, but when you came to our home, you just embodied everything I could have hoped Avina to be. I didn't mean to break down like that dear, I'm sorry if I burdened you with this little revelation," she said, that laugh of idiocy emenating from her again. Hermione watched as she wiped away some tears and looked up to Hermione while taking a sip of tea. Hermione wiped away her tears too, and tried to understand the magnitude of what she just said.
"no, not at all," Hermione stood and hugged her. "it means a lot to me that you would ever consider me anything like your daughter," Hermione said, she truly was touched. The two women stood in embrace, letting the last of the tears escape. Hermione couldn't believe what she had just learned. She had always known Lucius to be evil, and spiteful, but now she hated them even more. He had killed so many of his unborn children, and then he killed a living one. He was ruthless, and unforgivable, Hermione had never wished the death eaters kiss on anyone moreso than Lucius Malfoy. How Narcissa was able to stay with him, she wasn't sure, but she knew that if she was ever in that postion, she would kill her husband before she'd let him kill her child.
"ah, an old women's break down, just the way to celebrate the season," Narcissa laughed and conjured up a tissue to wipe her eyes. she handed one to Hermione who thanked her. "now, lets just forget about this loss of control, and focus on happy things," she said taking her seat, and Hermione racked her brain for something to talk about.
"What about the party? Perhaps you could tell me some more about that?" she asked taking a sip of the tea, trying to forget the fact that Draco had had a sister and would never know about it.
"ahh yes, it is quite the event of the year. There's food, drink, talk, and dance. Some of your classmates will probolly attend, as there parents have been attending for years," Narcissa said and they finished their tea.
"its sounds quite sumptuous," Hermione commented, she had never been to a lavish event besides the balls at school, but in her mind those didn't count.
"everyone always has a wonderful time," Narcissa replied and both women placed down her tea cup. "now lets see, I suppose I should call Melinda in here to get rid of the no dresses, perhaps you should try on the maybe's so we can further eliminate," Narcissa suggested and Hermione agreed. As she stood to walk over to the maybe pile, a dress that she hadn't tried on caught her eye. Quickly stripping out of the pink frou frou one, she slipped on the long and flowy grey dress. Standing on the platform, her mouth dropped open and she gasped a little. The dress was beautiful, the prettiest there. It was a long grey colored dress, it consisted of a dull silk with a grey see through fabric on top of it. the bust was ruched together, and the straps of it were a halter, but not like the dress she had worn to the Halloween ball. This dress had a neck piece that was the straps for the dress. Hermione loved the way it fell on her body, the texture, and her apperance. She thought she looked sexy, and hoped Draco would too. The only thing she questioned was the large lack of fabric on the left hand side. From her hip to right below her bust a diamond shaped piece of fabric was gone and instead a small, yet quite large set of diamonds in that shape replaced it, creating a certain glamour. Still this was not something Hermione would typically wear to any event, let alone anywhere else.
"Pansy, I think you've found the dress," Narcissa said as Pansy spun around in it.
"you don't think it's a bit over the top? I don't know if I would feel comfortable walking around like this," Hermione confessed, but she did love how the dress looked on her.
"its an elaborate event, and you look gorgeous, you will have every man's attention in the room," Narcissa said.
"its only one that I'm looking for," Hermione replied and the older women smiled sweetly.
"you have no reason not to feel comfortable, you have the body for it, and it fits you so well, its like it was calling you, but the descion is yous," she said but hoped Hermoine would get it. after a few more moments of contemplation, Hermione said she would. She loved the dress, and hoped Draco would too.
After putting on her robes, and carrying the dress out of the fitting room, the two women walked over to the shoes. Not wanting to wear too uncomfortable or high heels, but not wanting to wear flats either, they sorted through many boxes of shoes until they finally found a pair that matched the dress perfectly, there were the same color silver with little diamonds on them.
"I am so happy we found this dress, I really think its perfect," Narcissa said standing and holding it.
"I love it to," Hermione confessed, a smile stuck on her face.
"the only request I have is that I buy this outfit for you," Narcissa said as Hermione began to pull out her wallet.
"Narcissa, no, I cant allow you to do that," Hermione said trying to grab the dress from Narcissa's hands.
"Pansy, I insist, think of it as my Christmas present for you," Narcissa repleid.
"Narcissa, you are allowing me to stay in your home and celebrate Christmas with you, that's a present enough," Hermione said.
"no, its my gift, save your money and spend it on something you need, really," Narcissa said and all Hermione could do was hug her.
"oh thank you Narcissa, it really is too sweet," she said. Narcissa hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.
"it is my pleasure," she replied. The two women felt a bond with one another, and Hermione knew that even though Narcissa was a Death Eater, that she was really good, and that's where her son got it from.