A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I know none of us like when the poor babies are fighting with each other. They need to be united to get through all the drama I have planned! You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Huge shout out to Alassea Black for beta reading this chapter for me!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-six and be on the lookout for thirty-seven soon!
Hermione made a point to go and visit Narcissa as frequently as possible, knowing that the woman was likely going stir-crazy being laid up on bed rest, with about four months left to go before she was due to give birth. Hermione vaguely remembered Draco being born around June, but she'd never bothered to keep track of his exact birth date, so she couldn't be positive when the other woman would go into labor.
It was a sunny afternoon, but Hermione found Narcissa's curtains drawn and her nose in a magical book of constellations. "That is wonderful magic," Hermione said in awe, watching the way the stars glowed from the books dark pages in an approximation of the night sky. "Looking for baby names?" she questioned.
Narcissa looked up at her with a broad smile on her face. "Yes, how did you know?"
"Well...Regulus, Orion, Sirius, Cassiopeia, Bellatrix...I am sensing a trend in the family," Hermione revealed with a smirk, sitting down on the edge of Narcissa's bed. "Though, you are a bit of the odd one out, aren't you?"
The blonde was practically beaming. "Yes, it's quite the tradition in the Black family. But daddy took one look at me when I was born and said he couldn't think of any other name that would suit me. He said I was the most beautiful baby."
Hermione laughed at that. "That's sweet," she commented, imagining what that might be like. She didn't doubt that Narcissa had been a pretty baby. "So what are the possibilities for your baby?"
"Well, I rather like Carina if its a girl, but Lucius is positive that it's going to be a boy," Narcissa said, sounding rather disappointed. "I would love to name the baby Cygnus, if it's a boy, but the Malfoy family is fond of Roman senators. I thought it was hopeless, but then I've found Draco." She flipped through the pages, eagerly handing the book to Hermione to show her the bright constellation.
"It's perfect," Hermione gushed, knowing that she was sealing the fate for her little blond haired bully to be called Draco Malfoy. "Draco Malfoy - the perfect blend of Black and Malfoy. I am positive that Lucius will appreciate it too."
"Oh, I never know what to expect with him," Narcissa said, twiddling with his thumbs. "He doesn't seem nearly as excited for the baby to arrive as I am. It's practically all I want to talk about."
Hermione bit her lower lip. "I think that it's usually harder for the man, since he's not actually carrying the child. Once it's born, I am sure he will be absolutely over the moon." She didn't actually know what the relationship between Lucius and his child would be like, but at the very least, she knew that Narcissa already cared for him immensely. Hopefully, Lucius would be the same.
"Well, enough baby talk. Tell me about Regulus," Narcissa said eagerly. "He told me that the two of you had had a little argument."
The brunette frowned, thinking that she and Regulus hadn't really parted on the greatest of terms. "He wants me to break things off with Rabastan," Hermione said softly, knowing that it would be good to get an outsiders opinion. "It's not that I'm particularly interested in Rabastan, it's just...I know once I do that, Walburga will have wedding bells ringing in her ears."
"Oh, and what's wrong with that?" Narcissa asked. "You would make a beautiful bride, Hermione, and it would please me endlessly to see you and Regulus happily settled together."
Hermione could feel a knot forming in her throat, and blinked desperately so she wouldn't cry in front of her friend. Her relationship with Regulus was already doomed. "I don't want to be with Regulus, if he only wants me because his parents told him to. I know that you say he cares about me, but he hasn't done anything to prove that. I don't need a grand romantic gesture, just something, anything to let me know that it's his interest and not Walburga's."
Narcissa reached across the bed and grabbed Hermione's hand tightly in hers. "You must forgive him...I can see this has caused you much distress. I'm afraid Regulus has learned that it's best to hold your cards close to the chest. If you reveal what you want, it's easy for people to use it against you," she explained softly.
Suddenly, Hermione felt supremely sorry for the Black family. It was clear that Narcissa was speaking from experience and she wondered if it had something to do with Bellatrix. Silently, she made a promise to herself never to treat her children in the same way, when all it did was create needless pain.
"Everything will work out, I know it," Narcissa said, sounding much more confident than Hermione felt. "Just give him some time and he will figure it out."
Desperate to change the topic at hand, Hermione quickly stood back up. "Let me go get you some more books from the library. You've had the same set for a month now, Narcissa," she mock scolded. "Besides, I've been dying to get a look at the library. I'm afraid I've already gone through everything Cassiopeia has."
"Of course!" Narcissa said with a grin. "Please feel free to borrow whatever you would like. Lucius barely touches it and Abraxas couldn't be bothered to pull enough attention from his mistress to notice either. Please, at least bring me back a charms book - maybe the one about the Tarantella. Maybe reading about Italy will be enough to feel like a vacation."
Hermione laughed at her insistence, and eagerly listened to the instructions of how to get to the library, before leaving her friend. It almost seemed too easy for her to slip in and search around for the Diary a bit. Technically, Narcissa had told her she could borrow whatever she wanted, so she didn't feel so horrible about stealing from them either.
She got turned around once, but found the library easily enough. It was not nearly as grand as she would have expected - something out of Beauty and the Beast, she supposed - but it was much more extensive than the Black library. The walls were covered floor to ceiling with shelves, while the interior of the room was dominated by oversized, masculine furniture. It definitely gave off the impression of being untouchable.
As soon as she entered the room, she could feel the seductive caress of the horcrux's dark magic. Having been living with one for several weeks at this point, she'd become intimately aware of the odd feeling that one would have in the presence of a bit of soul. She could hear it singing, calling for her. She walked with purpose to a particular bookshelf before scanning the shelves back and forth looking for the slim, leather-bound book.
Surprisingly, it was down on the bottom shelf, sandwiched between a first edition potions manual and the diary of a foreign princess. Grabbing it eagerly, Hermione deposited the Diary into her beaded bag, before enlarging the diary of the princess, so that the empty space would not be readily noticed.
With the horcrux secured, Hermione felt herself relax and began picking through the shelves for books that might interest Narcissa. She found the mentioned book on the tarantella easily enough, but also picked up one on Greek mythology and a third describing the arithmetic traits that could be determined when a child was born. She was just about to grab another book on herbology when a voice startled her out of her concentration.
"Just what are you doing pilfering about in my library?" Lucius Malfoy sneered at her.
Pressing a hand to her heart, Hermione barely maintained her grip on the stack of books. "Oh, Merlin, Malfoy, you frightened me," she said, feeling her heart pounding against it's bony cage. "I was just grabbing Narcissa a few more books to read. It seems as if she's gone through all the ones in her room."
Lucius looked at her with one blond eyebrow raised, as though he did not believe her story for one minute. "Surely that would be work better suited to a house elf….and you are no house elf, are you Miss Dagworth-Granger?"
"No!" Hermione said forcefully, annoyed that even now he was finding a way to look down at her. "I just figured I could surprise her. And, I must confess that I've been curious to get a look at your library. It's very impressive," she complimented.
"Yes, well, I am sure to whatever you're used to it is quite grand," he condescended.
Nodding, wanting nothing more than to exit the conversation, Hermione tried to walk past him. "Well, I will just be returning these to Narcissa."
Lucius stepped in her path, before taking the stack of books from her hand. "That's fine. I can deliver these to my wife. I think that it's time you return home, Miss Dagworth-Granger," he ordered.
Hermione bit the inside of her cheek to keep from snapping at him. "Of course. Have a lovely afternoon, Lucius," she said with a overly-sweet voice. Clearly there was no love lost between her and Lucius.
Bellatrix used her wand to pluck the hair up from Narcissa's duvet cover. She sneered at the long, brown hair as it floated suspended in the air, easily deducing whose bushy head it came from. "You should do better to clean up after your pets," she scolded her younger sister disdainfully, before banishing the hair to her pocket.
Narcissa did not cow under her withering look, instead looking like a queen propped up amongst all of her stark white pillows. "Oh, I don't know why you are so insistent on hating Hermione so, but I won't hear you speak ill of her, Bella. If anything, she might be able to take some of the pressure off of you for the demand for an heir."
The older witch could feel the shock run through her at the thought of her baby sister talking back to her. Really, marrying that toad Lucius had made her think she was far better than she really was. "As if Edmund would just forget about the duty expected of Rodolphus and I," Bellatrix sneered.
"Well, I don't think she will choose Rabastan in the end," Narcissa said sweetly. "I think she and Regulus are perfect for one another...and they've both nearly realized it as well."
"Don't you ever get the feeling that your precious Hermione isn't really who she says she is?" Bellatrix hinted, feeling the excitement of her recent discovery that Hermione wasn't a Dagworth-Granger after all. It was so difficult for her to hold it in, but she knew that she needed to wait until she had sufficient evidence if she was going to convince anyone. She knew it was no secret that she didn't particularly care for the witch. Still, she would do anything to ensure that the unusual woman who had seemed to appear out of thin air wouldn't ever be a part of the family.
She was positive that the hair safely hidden away in her pocket was the key to that evidence. Bellatrix hadn't been the best at potions, but she'd certainly learned enough magic at home from her parents to know enough to get by. She seemed to recall coming across a potion that would identify a person's parents from a hair - a variant of the polyjuice potion. Pity it took so long to brew.
Narcissa was aghast at the question. "Bellatrix, you know that Hermione didn't grow up here. It's obvious that she is going to do some things that seem a bit odd to you or I, but I think it's important to look past all of that," she said, sounding confident. "I know Hermione's character and that is enough. Now, if you are going to insist on being nasty about my friends, I am going to have to ask you to leave. This kind of emotion is not good for the baby."
Bellatrix sneered, knowing when she was being dismissed. She was too excited at the thought of unmasking the witch that had captivated her friends and family to care much, and hurried home.