A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Wow, I cannot believe that we are actually half way through this story! You have all been so fabulous it has been a blast to write. Also, I can now tell you that next chapter, Sirius will finally be showing his face! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Huge shout out and thanks to Alassea Black for beta reading this chapter!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-five and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-six soon!
Hermione stared at her reflection in the mirror, wondering just how she'd managed to get herself here. When she was brought back to the past, she'd imagined a rather clinical in-and-out kind of operation. She'd track down the horcruxes - with or without Regulus Black's help - destroy them, and then let someone else kill Voldemort while he still didn't know he was vulnerable. She'd figure out how to get ahold of Kreacher and insist he bring her back to her own time, not caring that things would be irrevocably changed and that she probably wouldn't even be friends with Harry and Ron. Just knowing what she'd done would be enough for her.
She never once expected that she'd been living with Cassiopeia Black as her legal ward, pretending to be a pureblood girl, sashaying through social functions and catching the eye of Rabastan Lestrange of all people. She never in a million years thought that she would be entering into a second formal courtship.
When Cassiopeia told her the likely reason they'd been summoned (and that was putting it nicely - Hermione had seen the demand letter from Walburga) to Grimmauld Place for another dinner immediately following the printed announcement of her courtship with Rabastan, she figured out pretty quickly what Regulus's mother had up her sleeve.
In her heart of hearts, she could see herself having a relationship with Regulus. They had started off on a bit of a rough patch, but he quickly became one of her fastest friends. He was terribly naive about some things, but very open-minded at the same time, and he was willing to push her to be her best. He'd been a source of real support over the last months that she'd spent in 1979, and she honestly found the idea of him not being in her life a bit abhorrent.
Not to mention that he wasn't terrible to look at. Initially, she'd compared him to Sirius, finding faults in his face where his older brother had none, but now... Regulus was incredibly handsome. He was more polished and more stoic than Sirius, but it only made those moments when his Slytherin mask dropped more breath-taking to her. She loved the way that he blushed when she teased him, and the molten silver color of his eyes.
So one might wonder why she wouldn't be jumping for joy at the chance to court a young man who she had a bit of a crush on. Try as she might, Hermione knew that Regulus didn't feel the same way about her. There were moments when she thought perhaps he did - like when he gave her the flower on her birthday - but then he'd go back to not treating her as anything more than a friend.
Hermione knew that this suggestion of courtship could be nothing more than Walburga's insistence of the matter, and had nothing to do with Regulus actually wanting to be with her. If he had wanted more, would have said something by now, wouldn't he have? She was a bit devastated at the idea of being joined in such an emotional venture with someone who didn't feel the same way about her as she did about him. After all, she'd seen how well that had worked for Orion and Walburga, the cracks in their relationship's facade showing after years together.
Not that she was ever going to let this farce go as far as marriage. No, she hoped to have the whole horcrux issue sorted long before a marriage or, Merlin, even an engagement was mentioned, and Hermione Dagworth-Granger could slip away into obscurity. Away from Rabastan Lestrange and away from Regulus Black and any feelings he might inspire. Plus, she couldn't even begin to imagine how horrified Walburga Black or Edmund Lestrange would be to find out that she was actually a muggleborn.
After she'd put far more effort into looking pretty than was necessary - some spiteful part of her wanted to show up looking a mess, but she knew Cassiopeia would never allow it - Hermione left the sanctuary of her room to meet her guardian for the trip over to Grimmauld Place. Smoothing out her new set of robes, emerald green and perfect for the season, she felt the weight of Cassiopeia's eyes settle on her.
"You look lovely, princess," the older woman cooed. "Don't be nervous. It's just Regulus and his parents. And we already know how much they like you."
Somehow, the words were not nearly as reassuring as they were intended to be. Nodding softly, Hermione followed the older woman through the floo and into the rather uninviting parlor at Grimmauld Place. The massive family tree stood out on one wall, each member blasted off the tree shown proudly as a sign of good pureblood pruning.
Plastering a smile on her face, Hermione embraced Walburga, pressing a kiss to each of her cheeks, before repeating the action with Orion, albeit a bit more stiffly. Regulus was peeking around his parents, his expression a bit dumbfounded at how she looked. Her heart skipped a beat at seeing how much care he'd taken in his appearance as well.
"Regulus, doesn't Hermione look beautiful today?" Walburga questioned pointedly, from behind teeth clenched into a smile.
He nodded once. "Yes, Hermione, you look very pretty today," he said tensely, his voice cracking a bit in his throat, as though he were nervous.
"And don't you have something to ask her?" Walburga prompted once again.
This only further confirmed Hermione's intuition that this whole courtship was only being done at the insistence of Regulus's parents. Her heart felt as if it was in a vice, hating the idea that Regulus would do something like that...not standing up for himself. At least she was aware enough to be able to read the situation. She couldn't imagine how hurt she would be if she was under the false impression that he was being genuine.
"Yes," Regulus affirmed, taking a shaky breath in before reaching out to grab her hand in his larger one. "Hermione, I was wondering, hoping really, that you would agree to enter a courtship with me. I think that you and I could be a suitable match."
There it was again, the word suitable. How Hermione was beginning to loathe it. Nevertheless, she swallowed and did what was expected of her. Giving Cassiopeia a little look, she turned her attention back to Regulus. "Yes, Regulus, I will accept your offer," she agreed.
He gave her hand a squeeze that she did not return. "Wonderful. I look forward to proving to you that we are better suited to one another than you are with Rabastan," he insisted. That sentiment was certainly genuine, she was sure.
Walburga was over the moon with joy, clapping her hands together. "Oh, how excellent! Oh, Hermione, I just knew that you were significant to our lives the moment I laid my eyes on you," she gushed. Funnily enough, that's not how Hermione remembered their first meeting going. Instead, it had seemed as if Walburga thought she was a piece of trash that her son had dragged home. "Why don't you two seal it with a little kiss? It is tradition after all," she encouraged.
Hermione made a shocked noise, finding it very odd that they would share their first kiss in front of his family. Regulus gave her a look of apology before stepping forward to close the gap between them. He was a bit taller than her, so he had to bend to press his lips to hers in what was truly an unremarkable kiss.
Hermione wasn't sure what it was she was expecting - the heavens to open up and the birds to rejoice in song? - but it wasn't something as unpassionate as this. His lips were slightly chapped and he kept them firmly closed, making the perfunctory kiss extremely chaste. If she ever needed a sign that Regulus just wasn't that into her, this was absolutely it.
When it was over, she pulled her hand away from his, before turning to face the rest of the family. Both Walburga and Cassiopeia were smiling broadly, but even Orion had a hint of a grin on his normally dour face. "Oh, young love!" Cassiopeia sighed softly, obviously reading more into the interaction that there was.
"Orion, you should send off an owl to the Daily Prophet so that the match can be announced," Walburga reminded her husband, ever the taskmaster. Hermione thought it a bit conceited of the woman to just assume that Hermione was going to accept the offer, though perhaps it was expected of her because they had helped her out when she first "arrived" in England.
At this, Hermione wasn't able to hold back her objection. "I'm sorry Madam Black, but such a public announcement will have to wait. One of the conditions of the open courtship with the Lestrange family was that I inform them first should I enter into another courtship with anyone else," she said matter-of-factly, hoping that the pair of them wouldn't take offense. "I would hate for them to learn from the newspaper and not from me."
"Of course, Hermione is right as ever," Cassiopeia said proudly. "This girl, always so smart, so conscientious. Any family would be lucky to have her. I will of course owl Edmund right away. I'm sure he'll be absolutely thrilled to hear that his son has to put in a little effort for once in his life," she said snidely, leaving Hermione with the impression that Rabastan was not in for a very pleasant night if he wanted to pursue her.
"Regulus, why don't you show Hermione to the dining room and get her a drink. We will join you shortly once we get this all sorted out," Orion said with his usual level of detachment. It seemed that he did not share the ladies enjoyment of intrigue.
Once the pair of them were alone, Hermione was feeling rather annoyed at having her life dictated by Regulus's parents - and the way that Regulus seemed to let them. A hint of resentment began to bubble up inside her when she looked that the dejected way he held his shoulders. Turning around to face him, she immediately snapped. "Do you do everything your parents tell you to?" she questioned sharply, only to regret her tone once she saw the wounded look on his face.
"I...I'm sorry that I wasn't able to give you a warning. Mother can be very persistent when she wants something," he said helplessly. Hermione was beginning to see more clearly how Sirius would have bucked against this kind of parental control. "Besides, I didn't think you saw it as that big of a deal. You seem to think that you can just break courtships willy-nilly."
She knew that this was a jab at the way she'd dismissed his concerns about her agreement with Rabastan. "You know there is a reason why I agreed to Rabastan's. And once I get to the bottom of it, I will be breaking it off." Her conversation with Bellatrix only convinced her of this more firmly. She wondered what the scary woman would think when she heard about the second courtship. "What's the purpose of this? Making your mother happy? Well, she better get used to the idea of not always getting her way, because I've told you I will not marry anyone for less than love. I don't care about my reputation or what your little pureblood society will make of me if I break off one hundred bloody courtships!"
He stared at her with an odd look in his eyes, perhaps wondering if she'd lost her mind for how strongly she was reacting to the situation. She knew he likely hadn't met anyone with opinions like she had. "I, of course, wouldn't expect you to remain in our courtship out of expectation," he said, his eyes boring into her, as though he were trying to tell her something. "But in the meantime, you can use it to your advantage. You can use our progression as additional leverage to get things out of Rabastan."
The brunette felt a bit dumbfounded at his reasoning. Had this really been Slytherin reasoning all along? Had she underestimated her friend once again? Some of the tension left her body when she allowed herself to think that Regulus wasn't browbeaten into dating her. "I like the way you think," she said, only to bite her lower lip between her teeth. "Just, Regulus...don't kiss me again unless you mean it," she insisted, hating that she was so vulnerable in the arrangement.
He gave her a half-hearted grin. "Whatever you say, Hermione."