Author's Note: Took a little longer than I was expecting, but the next chapter is here. I'm hoping you enjoy it. I've already started writing the next one and I'm crossing my fingers I'll get it up next week!

March: Mending

The phone rang twice before Jane answered it, setting down her cup of coffee with regret. "Granger residence, Jane speaking."

"Good morning, Mum, I wanted to catch you before work. I hope this isn't too early?"

Jane's hand almost slipped on the phone in her surprise. She hadn't heard from Hermione directly since the incident. "Not too early. I'm just having coffee while your father makes breakfast."

"Good." Hermione wondered how to begin, and simply opened her mouth, not wanting to let the silence stretch long enough to cause either of them to say something they might regret. "I was thinking, that since Draco and Dad are going to the Quidditch match tonight, you and I might do something, just the two of us."

"Oh?"

Hermione frowned at the phone, unable to make much of her mother's opinion on the basis of that one syllable. She was glad her mother couldn't see her face. "Yes. I thought I might take you around Diagon Alley. Fred and George have their shop there, and it's been a while since you and I have been there together. I think you'll really like some of the trinkets it's the charms shop."

"What time will you pick me up?"

Hermione hadn't gotten that far yet. "Would 6:30 work for you? We could go to that restaurant you like in Picadilly before we go to Diagon Alley."

"I'll see you at 6:30 then." She realized her voice was perhaps a little more tart than it should have been. Her daughter wanted to spend time with her. That was a good thing, wasn't it? She tried to let a little more politeness into her voice. "What time is Draco coming to pick up your father?"

She put her hand over the receiver and looked at Draco. "What time are you picking Dad up?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Let's say 6:30. I'll take him out for a drink before that match."

She turned her attention back to the phone. "He'll come with me at 6:30. We'll see you both tonight. I'm looking forward to it."

"So am I. I'll see you this evening." She clicked the End button and set the phone back in it's cradle. "Hermione actually sounds like she wants to see me." There was a note of surprise in her voice.

David left off with the fruit he was cutting and looked at his wife. "She loves you, Jane, even if she doesn't always show it. You'll make an effort with her tonight?"

"I always do."

He shook his head. "I'm looking forward to the match. Hermione hasn't seemed real enthusiastic about Quidditch, but I understand that it's quite a big deal. It seemed to be important that Ron and Harry were on the team in school. And now Ginny's a professional?" He got a mischievous look on his face. "And it'll give me a chance to size Draco up one-on-one. Tell me the truth: do you think I could take him?"

Jane gave him a serious look. "Not even if you were twenty years younger." She chuckled; he always could make her laugh. "But I imagine you'd try, even twenty years from now."

"I wouldn't have to kill him," he protested. "Just maybe invite him to the office for a cleaning, and pull out all of his teeth."

She smiled and sat down to breakfast. "I knew I married you for a reason. If only I knew the reason Hermione was marrying Draco."

David tensed a little and then relaxed. "Don't start that again. She says she loves him. Isn't that enough?"

"I know what she says. But you know our Hermione. She has to save everyone. Sometimes I even worry she's trying to save us." That thought had troubled her more than once. "Watch them together. Whatever Hermione's usual tendencies…I do believe she loves him. Stranger things have happened."

Jane did her best not to frown. She wanted her daughter to be happy. She deserved to be happy. She just didn't want to take the risk that Hermione might be sacrificing her happiness for some bigger ideal. It was going to be an effort tonight not to say something that was going to burn the olive branch her daughter was offering.

Hermione and Draco were ready to go. Draco was in one of his favorite sets of robes, and Hermione had donned a sweater and skirt appropriate enough for an evening out with her mother, though she threw her cloak in her bag in case she got chilled. She scratched Monarch behind the ears as the kitten ate.

"You'll be all right alone with my Dad for a few hours?" she asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure, if it came to it and he decided your virtue was in danger and he needed to get me out of the way, I could hex him before he laid a hand on me."

She frowned at him. "That's not what I meant. I meant, are you going to be able to make smalltalk with him all that time without anything getting…awkward?"

"There will be the game to watch, we won't have to speak that much. And I'm sure if it came to it, he'd be happy to tell embarrassing stories from your childhood to keep me entertained. Just manage not to say anything to your mother you don't mean. Or not to say the things you do mean but you wouldn't want to say." A slight look of amusement ghosted over his face. After all, there were plenty of things Hermione might mean, but regret saying to her mother all the same as far as keeping the peace was concerned.

Hermione checked her bag one more time to be sure she had everything she needed. "All right. I suppose it's time to go." She took Draco by the arm and Apparated them both to the backyard of her childhood home.

Hermione's father opened the door when she knocked and she hugged him with one arm, still having Draco's hand in the other. "Hi, Dad. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Your mother is just finishing getting ready." He lowered his voice. "It really means a lot to her that you wanted to go out tonight. Try not to upset her?"

She smiled wryly. "I'll try."

David seemed to relax a little and asked, "Is this all right to wear to the Quidditch game? I thought about going the bathrobe route but your mother seemed to think it was a bad idea."

"Muggle clothes are fine, Dad."

He looked at Draco. "How will we get there?"

"Apparation."

Momentarily, Jane appeared and greeted Hermione and Draco. Hermione found herself oddly nervous as she watched Draco and her father leave after pleasantries had been exchanged with her mother. She wasn't sure who she was more nervous for—the thought of Draco alone with her father all night, or the thought of spending the evening with her mother and not somehow causing another fight.

"Well, shall we go?"

"Yes, are you ready to Apparate? There's a place not too far from the restaurant where we shouldn't be noticed."

Jane blinked. "I thought we'd take the tube."

Hermione's stomach was rumbling by the time they got to the restaurant—Muggle transportation was not nearly as fast as Apparating, and she was pretty sure she'd stepped in something. After they were seated at the table and their drink orders had been taken, Jane smiled. "This is..nice. I'm glad you wanted to come out tonight."

"Thank you for coming out with me, Mum. How have things been at the office lately?" Hermione listened as her mother told her about the new hygienist they had hired and how the longtime receptionist had gone on holiday in the tropics and come back totally burnt. In return, Jane asked after all the Weasleys and Harry, and how things were at her own office. It was almost a normal conversation.

By the time they were most of the way through their entrees Hermione's mother asked—just as casually as everything else—how the wedding plans were going.

Hermione paused, midway through cutting her meat. She tried to read her mother's face and failed, but she didn't think there was a challenge in her voice. "I haven't really made any plans since we fought the last time we had dinner. I don't need your blessing, Mum, but I want it. I'd rather have you there than not have you there. But there are some other things I'm trying to figure out too."

"Like what, Hermione?"

She shrugged and took a breath. Lying was too big an effort, and she disliked it as a rule. She'd decided to tell as much of the truth as she could tonight, so long as she could omit the one fact that her mother must not know. "You know as a child I didn't exactly daydream about my dream wedding like a lot of other girls do. So there are a lot of things I haven't had a reason to think about. Most of my friends aren't married yet, so it hasn't really come up until now. Mum, I've given up a lot to live in the world I live in. And I know that. And for the most part…it's mostly worth it, in a lot of ways. And I know that you and Dad would love me no matter what I do. We were thinking about getting married at Draco's family manor, but if we do…most of our family won't be able to make it. You and Dad are the only ones who know what I am…who I am. Aunt Rose and all the others don't know. For various reasons…they'd never be able to find the Manor. Which raises all the other cultural questions as well, such as a dress, or robes? Who will marry us? Where we decide to have the wedding, who needs to be there…it's all complicated."

Jane's heart went out to her daughter right then, at hearing her verbalize the situation that had caused tension and stress on both sides for years now. Her daughter was doing her best to live two lives, to be two people. And there was only so far she could stretch. She reached across the table and took her daughter's hand. The words that came out weren't as difficult as she expected them to be. "Hermione, if you decide to marry Draco, and if you decide to marry him somewhere the family can't go, I will deal with them and tell them any story you'd like. You don't need to worry about offending them."

The brown haired girl appreciated the gesture, even though her mother had included the word "if" before her marriage to Draco. There were too many unknowns there. Hermione knew she wanted him in her life. Did she want to marry him? Now wasn't the time to think about it. But if she didn't think about it now, when would she? "Thanks, Mum. I don't want to alienate the family, but at the same time…sometimes I feel like I hardly know them anymore. If we gather for a wedding or a funeral or a holiday, I hardly know what to say. I can't say anything about myself. I don't know what questions to ask anymore about how they are. I've practically dropped out of their lives for a decade. I don't know how to drop back in. I don't know if I want to."

"Well, you don't have to decide right now," she said, perhaps a little briskly. "As you said, it's a big decision, it's complex…but I know you'll sort things out. Do you want dessert or shall we go?"

"Let's go."

Draco and David arrived at the Leakey Cauldron and ordered a couple of Pale Dragons and found a table. Being that it was Friday night, things were fairly lively. "I do wonder if it was safe to leave the two of them alone," David mused. "But they should be able to work things out, I think."

Draco nodded in agreement. "They are a lot alike. They'll manage." There was a moment's silence before Draco admitted, "I never thought about how difficult it was to have a life in the Muggle world and the Wizarding one until I started spending time with Hermione. I don't know how she does it."

"She's Hermione. She's too stubborn not to succeed at whatever she sets her mind to. Did I ever tell you about the time she fell asleep on top of the Encyclopedia Britannica? She was determined to learn about everything and decided she'd start with A and work her way through to Z. She thought she could do it all in a night. That was back before the internet was real common and you could look up whatever you wanted online and have it at the tips of your fingers in seconds. At the time, I remember thinking that I was surprised she could even lift a volume of the Encyclopedia off the shelf, let alone read it."

Draco smiled. It sounded like Hermione. And it was just as he had predicted—David was happy to fill the conversation with stories about Hermione's childhood. He'd hardly have to do any talking at all.

"So tell me, why do you want to marry Hermione?"

Draco's voice only caught a little. He was becoming used to the words. Whether or not he'd manage to say them to her was another matter. "I love her."

"That's not enough."

He stared at him, unable to decide if the man was bluffing or what the right response was. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

David chuckled, as if he had a secret. "Hermione is a girl that likes details, Draco. I imagine one night she'll be sitting next to you and maybe feeling insecure. And she will ask."

He took a long drink from his Pale Dragon and it was empty before he set it down again. "She's one of the most obsessive, neurotic, stressed out people I've ever met. And I want to spend every day with her." He paused. "She laughs at me. People don't usually do that—or if they do it once, they never to do it again. I don't like it when she laughs at me, but I don't mind it the way I would if it were anyone else. With anyone else it would be at me. When she does it, she's teaching me to laugh at myself." His lips curled in a wry smile. "She's exhausting sometimes. I don't know how she cares so thoroughly and so constantly. But she makes me want more out of life than I ever wanted before. I never wanted much more than to be at ease, perhaps have a little power at my fingertips. I want more now." He stopped before his mouth could run away with him. He'd said enough. He didn't need to go on about the way she bit her lip when she was reading with extra concentration, or the look on her face during her first coffee or tea in the morning when she was still just waking up. "I'll go get us another couple of drinks."

David's amused smile followed Draco to the bar.

Draco ordered two Firewhiskeys from Tom and waited for them. It was going to be a long night. He brought the smoking glasses to the table and raised his towards David and took a sip. He could just barely feel it causing his ears to steam.

Hermione strolled down Diagon Alley with her mother, pointing out what things were new since the last time they'd been there together. She was pleased to see that her mother wanted to go into the pet shop for some treats for Crookshanks, and she took her into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, finding it fairly busy with the Friday night crowd who needed a few laughs after a long week at work.

"Oi! Hermione!" Fred called out, catching sight of her.

She could see that George had his hands full giving a demonstration to several customers at once and led her mother back towards where Fred was scattering feed into the Pygmy Puff enclosure.

"Fred, you remember my mother, don't you?"

"Mrs. Granger, always a pleasure. Hermione," he hugged her. "Where's Malfoy tonight? I've hardly seen you out of one another's sight in weeks."

Hermione hugged him back and kissed his cheek. "Boys' night out. He and my dad are bonding at Ginny's match tonight."

"Ah, and so it's girls' night out for the two of you. Would you like to see something from the romance and fun aisle? Family discount of course. Two for one on our Patented DayDream charms."

Hermione gave him a warning look. "I think we'll pass on those."

"Suit yourselves, look around and let me know if anything catches your eyes, if you'll excuse me, I think I see someone trying to stuff fireworks down his trousers—that's not going to end well."

She watched as the redhead went off to deal with the would-be shoplifter and knew that the thief would regret his attempt. "Do you see anything you like, Mum?"

"These are…interesting," she said, cautiously stroking a Puff. "I imagine Crookshanks wouldn't take too kindly to another animal in the house."

To Hermione's surprise, her mother did end up choosing a trinket or two she thought her dad might enjoy. They wandered through Diagon Alley, lingering over Flourish and Blotts, sticking their heads in at the Apothecary to see if Theo was working. Hermione was going to bypass Fortescue's so that she could avoid a dental hygiene lecture, but Florean himself greeted her as she walked by and she felt compelled to introduce her mother as he asked after Draco. Still, if a lecture on dental hygiene was as bad as it got tonight, they were doing okay.

Jane contented herself with a single scoop of ice cream and admonished Hermione against having sweets too often.

Brushing a strand of hair back from her face, Hermione looked at her mother, ignoring the previous lecture. "Mum, I don't think I ever asked you this. How did you know Dad was the one?"

David and Draco settled into their seats, high up on the pitch. Draco couldn't decide if he was amused or annoyed at the way David's head constantly turned to take a second look at things as he saw them. While the man had been exposed to the wizarding world before, he'd certainly never been to a Quidditch match, and he probably hadn't been anywhere near wizards in such numbers since Hermione was young enough to need a chaperone around Diagon Alley.

"Remind me of the rules again? Ginny is a…Chaser?"

Draco gave him the short of the rules—the function of each position and ball. "And yes, the Weaslette is a Chaser."

David cocked an eyebrow at him. "The Weaslette?"

He was unrepentant. "Old habits. To her face I can usually manage to call her Ginny now, most of the time. She's with my best mate now. I imagine he's around here somewhere."

Before the conversation could go any further, the referee blew his whistle and announced the starting line up. The stands were nowhere near full, as Draco knew they would be for a professional match, but there was a respectable showing of fans for a Friday night game between two junior teams. In almost no time, the players were in position and the balls were released.

They watched as the teams tussled over the Quaffle. Ginny managed to block a pass with the end of her broom, but the teammate who was supposed to pick it up 20 feet below her was hit by a bludger. Thirty feet below that, a chaser from the opposing team managed to save it and streak off towards the goal, managing to score.

The game had gone on for nearly an hour when David asked, "Why haven't either of the Seekers gone after the..the Snitch? Aren't they supposed to catch it?"

Draco's eyes were on the field, trying to watch all of it at once. "They are, they haven't spotted it yet. It's a big pitch. It could take hours for someone to catch sight of it."

"It's halfway down the pole there, at that end," David said, as though it were obvious.

Sure enough, when Draco looked he caught a glint of gold, and then it was gone. "Sharp eyes. Evidently they haven't seen it yet, no one has dived for it. But it's gone again."

"Spend as many hours as I have looking for small cavities in the crevice of teeth and you learn to keep an eye out for things," he said dryly.

As the Quaffle went through the hoop again, fans cheered. Ginny's team had scored another ten points, bringing the total to 60-50. One of Ginny's fellow chasers took a bludger to the arm badly enough twenty minutes later for a substitute to have to be called in for him. The team definitely was a little off their stride. Draco and David watched as the other team, feeling confident, began to score, scoring another three times in the next 20 minutes.

"They need to regroup and get their head back in the game," Draco muttered. He watched the team captain called a timeout.

"Draco," a voice said, tapping him on the shoulder and climbing into the seat next to him. "Mr. Granger."

"Blaise," Draco greeted. "I wondered when you'd turn up."

Blaise settled himself into the seat. "It hasn't been their best match. I was sitting in the section across the way."

"Call me David, Blaise, any friend of Hermione's…"

The team seemed to rally a bit after their timeout. They didn't score again for some time, but neither did the other team. David watched in amazement as one chaser pretended to have the Quaffle and darted across the field while the one who actually had it nearly made it to the hoop before anyone knew she was there. He nudged Draco as he noticed something in one corner of the field. The Seeker on Ginny's team was sitting absolutely still on his broom.

All at once, he shot across the field at a sharp angle, nearly crashing into the stands and only saving himself by inches, but the Snitch was clutched in his hand.

"And that's it, the match is over!" the announcer said, calling the game in favor of Ginny's team.

"That was incredible," David said, still watching the pitch as the players descended. "It almost makes me wish Hermione liked flying so that I might have had a chance to try. I can't imagine how much adrenaline must be pumping through their veins right now. So many close calls."

Draco chuckled, pushing his hair back from his face. "It is a rush. I was Seeker for Slytherin at Hogwarts."

Blaise snickered and Draco ignored him. Blaise—good friend that he was—decided it was a good opportunity to regale David with the story of the Snitch that was practically in his ear when Potter caught it. Draco glared at his friend and couldn't decide whether he was grateful that David managed to mostly not laugh, or humiliated that the man felt the need to try to spare his feelings. "Well, you can't win them all," was all that David said in response.

"We may be able to work out the flying thing," Blaise mused.

Draco cocked an eyebrow and considered it. "I've never tried it with a Muggle, but the brooms are enchanted, it could work."

"I could fly?" David asked, disbelieving. People were already leaving the stands around them, but the three of them remained seated.

"Maybe. You could certainly ride behind one of us while we flew. You might be able to manage something on your own," Draco mused. "No way to know unless you try."

The Muggle looked torn. "I want to try. But maybe not tonight. I get motion-sick. I'll need some dramamine."

"Another time then," Draco said, wondering what dramamine was. "Shall we head back?"

David reached into his pocket for something. "I suppose we should. Let me call the girls and see where they are."

"You bring the phone with you when you go out?"

David chuckled. "I don't particularly like it, but Jane and I each have a mobile, mostly for emergencies. We don't usually give out our numbers. It is handy, though I imagine we'd use them more if we didn't work in the same office and see each other all day." The thing he took out of his pocket was rectangular, with maybe a dozen buttons on it, and a small screen. "I'll give Jane a call."

"You might want to wait until we're outside the stadium. We could walk a little ways, and then the wards around the stadium shouldn't interfere," Blaise suggested.

Jane and Hermione were having a cup of coffee when Jane's purse started to ring. She picked it up from amongst the shopping bags by her feet.

"I didn't know you'd gotten a mobile, Mum," Hermione said in surprise.

She unzipped the purse. "It's recent—just two weeks ago. I don't think I've ever called anyone on it but your father. We thought about getting one for you, but I wasn't sure you'd actually use it." The number on the screen was David's. "Hello? Yes, we're home. Hermione wasn't sure how long the match was going to be."

Hermione got up to get herself another cup of coffee while her mother was on the phone. She'd always known that her parents had met in dental school, and hadn't really gotten on with one another at the time. Her mother's answer tonight to how she'd known that her father was the one had been unexpected.

"I realized your father brought out the best in me. That I didn't want to spend a day without him. People talk about falling in love as if there is this one moment where something happens—some grand gesture. I don't think it's like that. Or it wasn't for me."

It wasn't an unfamiliar sentiment. After all, she didn't want Draco to leave. She could admit that to herself, even if not to him. And she'd even told Harry that she agreed that Draco was a good influence on her—she was still accomplishing plenty and feeling more relaxed while doing it. Weren't they behaving nearly the same at home and in public anymore? Except for kissing. Had they fallen for their own fraud? Or had she simply fallen for Draco?

She heard the sound of Apparation in the backyard and got out two more cups.

Draco and David came in, and Hermione and Draco didn't stay long—just long enough for a cup of coffee for everyone and polite goodbyes and that they'd had a good evening. Hermione did make sure to get her mother's mobile phone number.

When they arrived back at the flat, Hermione hugged him. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, mystified.

"For giving me a wonderful evening with my mother. Or for making me have a good evening with her. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't perfect…but I feel better now."

He tried to shrug it off, but he couldn't entirely keep the pleased expression from his face. "I did have a promise to keep with your father. A Malfoy keeps his promises."

"It's not that late yet. Do you want a glass of wine?"

"Why not?"

She brought out a couple of glasses, and sat on the couch, while he settled himself in the recliner. She told him about Florean calling her into his shop, and the crowd at Fred and George's. Draco told her about the look on her father's face when Blaise suggested they might be able to make him fly, and he recounted some of the embarrassing stories her dad had told. He even described the smoke coming out of David's ears after his first sip of Firewhiskey.

When the glasses were empty, they agreed that it was time to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. Draco had plans. Hermione had the vague formation of an idea. And while neither of them knew it—though they both should have guessed—Narcissa had plans as well.