No sooner had Hermione apparated into the corridor just outside the Great Hall than she took off at a dead run to find the nearest girl's bathroom. She barely made it in time; as it was, she nearly had to perform a cleaning charm on herself. After she finished up, she remained seated on the toilet for a few moments to collect herself before returning to Lucius.
"You've been sitting there for a long time!" Hermione jumped as she heard the disembodied voice of Moaning Myrtle hovering near the ceiling over her stall. "Are you distraught?" she added hopefully.
"No, I'm just tired," Hermione snapped back. "I'm resting for a moment."
"You're the girl who turned herself into a cat," Myrtle said, not having recognized Hermione at first. A moment later, after Hermione had stood up, pulled up her knickers and rearranged her gown and robe, the ghostly girl observed, "And now you're having a baby! Shame on you; that's against school rules!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at the busybody ghost. "I'm not a student anymore," she informed Myrtle in a haughty tone of voice that would have done Lucius proud. "I've already graduated."
"So you married that red haired boy, then," Myrtle concluded, having noticed the chemistry between the two when the Golden Trio had spent a lot of time in her bathroom when they were second years.
"No, he died during the Battle of Hogwarts last year," Hermione told her, sighing.
"I'm sorry," Myrtle said, somewhat abashed. "So who is it, then? Someone I know?"
"I don't know if you've heard of him or not," Hermione said. "It's Lucius Malfoy."
"Malfoy?" Myrtle repeated. "That's the name of that boy who came to talk to me when he was so troubled a couple of years ago. But his name was Draco. Is Lucius his brother?"
Chuckling merrily, Hermione replied, "No, he's Draco's father."
"You married Draco's father?" the ghost said, shocked.
"No, we're not married," Hermione explained wearily. Now wanting to return to Lucius, she didn't feel like explaining the consort relationship to Myrtle.
"I was right!" Myrtle declared, now properly scandalized. "You are a naughty girl!"
Hermione laughed at her as she headed out the door to return to the wedding.
As Hermione reached the doors to the Great Hall, she saw that the ceremony was over. The wedding party had formed a receiving line on the dais and people were already queuing up to give their congratulations. Narcissa, Andromeda, Draco, Xeno, and Luna had gone to wait their turn to congratulate the newly-married couple, but Lucius was waiting for her in the doorway.
"You took quite awhile," Lucius remarked, as Hermione reached up for a kiss. "I was beginning to think that you'll fallen in."
"I'm sorry," she said. "But Moaning Myrtle was in there and I ended up talking to her for awhile. I feel sorry for her -- it must be frightfully boring and lonely to be a ghost sometimes."
"I'm sure," Lucius replied absently.
"Where did everyone go," she asked, meaning the rest of the Malfoy entourage.
"Being Mr Potter's closest wizarding relatives, they went to pay their respects," Lucius said, indicating the long queue to the reception line with a sweep of his hand. "Luna and Xeno, likewise, wished to do so, and Draco properly went with them as Luna's fiance. Perhaps you need to do so as well."
"That's a good idea," she agreed. She moved to walk to the back of the queue, but stopped when she noticed that Lucius was not following her. "Aren't you coming with me?"
"No, I'll just wait for you," he said. "I have no wish to get into a confrontation with Molly Weasley nor her daughter. Mr Potter deserves a peaceful wedding day without drama."
"If you're not going, then I'm not going," Hermione said firmly. "I'll just find Harry later and pay my respects. It's not as if Mrs Weasley or Ginny will be thrilled to see me, whether or not you're with me."
"True," Lucius agreed. "Why don't we take a walk on the grounds while we wait for Narcissa and the others?"
"I'd like that," Hermione said, smiling up at her consort. After taking his arm, the happy couple strolled out into the courtyard, where a few others were already out enjoying the sun as they waited for the reception to begin.
As they headed onto the grounds in the general direction of Hagrid's cabin, they came upon Argus Filch and Irma Pince sitting on a bench just outside the courtyard, with Mrs Norris seated on the pavement by her master. Both were dressed in their finest robes and Hermione thought that this must have been the only time she'd ever seen Filch clean shaven.
"Mr Malfoy," Filch greeted, nodding at Lucius, His disapproving glance passed briefly over Hermione, but he did not comment about the younger man's relationship with her.
"I understand that congratulations are in order," Lucius told Filch smoothly, including Irma Pince with his gaze. "Allow us to offer our best wishes on your recent marriage."
"Thank you, sir," Filch answered. "We're very happy."
Looking kindly at the Hogwarts librarian, Hermione said, "I'm very glad for you. You should have done it years ago."
"Thank you," the new Mrs Filch said primly.
Before Filch could comment, Lucius said, "We'll leave you to your privacy now. The reception will begin shortly, but we wanted to get a walk in first." Taking Hermione's hand, he led her away from the older couple, without waiting for a reply.
Once they were well out of earshot, Lucius turned to Hermione and said, "I know you meant well, but there's a very good reason why Mr Filch didn't marry Mrs Pince until now."
Hermione gave him a questioning look, but otherwise did not speak, waiting for him to continue.
"As you may or may not know, Argus Filch is a squib from a pureblood family," Lucius told her. "Sadly, he was the last male of the Filch line, which has now died out because he is a squib."
As the couple paused to enjoy the view of the lake in the distance, he continued. "Relatively few squibs remain in the wizarding world, as most prefer to disappear into the muggle world and take their chances there, usually taking muggle mates. From what I understand, Filch tried this for a few years as a young man, but soon returned, as he was unable to integrate successfully into muggle life. When he returned to the wizarding world, Dumbledore took pity on him and gave him his current position at Hogwarts."
Taking a deep breath, he continued, "The few squibs who have remained in the wizarding world almost never marry. First of all, few witches would consider marrying a squib. Secondly, most squibs come from pureblood families, so they remain single so as not to risk bringing squib children into the world and further embarrassing their families. Those who do marry, wait to marry a witch who is beyond childbearing years in order to avoid this possibility." Taking Hermione's hands in his own, he said, "Though I know you only meant to give them the best of wishes, what you said only reminded Mr Filch that he's a squib and was no doubt offensive to him."
"I'm so sorry," Hermione moaned. "I had no idea. It's so sad!"
"It's my fault," Lucius said. "I keep forgetting that you were raised in the muggle world and would have no idea of the finer points of wizarding etiquette that those raised in the wizarding world learn as children."
"Do you have any books about wizarding etiquette that I could read, so I don't embarrass you again," she asked. "I need to learn before Lucinda is born, so I can better teach her."
Leaning down to give her a brief kiss, he said, "You could never knowingly embarrass me. But I'll get you the appropriate books the next time we go into Flourish and Blotts." After a thoughtful pause, he said, "When I regain my Governorship, I will work to establish a Wizarding Customs class for all incoming muggleborn students, so they'll fit better into the wizarding world and avoid such gaffes as you just made."
"That's an excellent idea," she agreed.
"We've been gone awhile," Lucius observed. "We should be getting back and rejoin the others. They will no doubt be wondering what happened to us. I would imagine the house elves have already set things up for the reception.
A short time later, Lucius and Hermione, along with the rest of the Malfoy entourage, were seated at a round table in the Great Hall, situated among the many other similar tables set up for the wedding reception. The wedding party was seated up on the dais at the regular staff table used during the school year. A section of the floor directly below the dais had been reserved for dancing, with the band set up to one side.
After they'd finished eating, Draco and Luna got up to dance. Xeno, likewise, got up to circulate among the crowd, looking for story material for his first issue of the revived Quibbler.
A few minutes later, Harry Potter approached the table and thanked everyone for attending. Turning to Hermione, he asked, "Would you like to dance," then belatedly added to Lucius, "That is, if you don't mind?"
"Of course not," Lucius assured him. "Be my guest."
As Harry led Hermione to the dance floor, she murmured, "I'm sorry I didn't go through the receiving line, but I didn't want to upset Ginny and Mrs Weasley on your wedding day."
"That's all right," Harry assured her. "I figured it was something like that and I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I'm just glad you came to the wedding."
"It was my pleasure," she told him. "I was surprised to see your cousin Dudley here, though."
"I'd sent him an invitation, but I didn't really expect him to come," Harry told her. "It really pleased me to see him here. I'm hoping we can have some kind of relationship now that we're both adults."
Back at the table, Narcissa excused herself to go "powder her nose". After she'd left the table, Lucius turned his gaze on Hermione, who was still dancing with Harry, appreciating how gracefully she was dancing with him. Andromeda followed his gaze, and said, "She's blossomed into a beautiful young woman, Lucius. She'll make a wonderful mother."
"Yes, she will," Lucius agreed. After a pause, Lucius turned to Andromeda and said in a quiet voice, "I want to apologize to you."
"Apologize?" she asked, perplexed. "What for?"
"For not supporting you when you married Ted Tonks," he began. "For not urging Narcissa to see you after your wedding, even though she missed you. For thinking you were a blood traitor simply for marrying the man you loved. I never truly saw how wrong all of that was until I got together with Hermione. Being with her has opened my eyes about a lot of things. I hope you'll accept my apology for all the wasted years."
Andromeda looked into his eyes and saw that he was being entirely sincere. ""Of course, I accept," she said quietly. "Those were different times, then, as we were all young and foolish. You've been a good husband to Narcissa all these years, no matter what, and you did the right thing for your family when it really mattered. We can't undo the past -- all we can do is look forward and do the best we can now."
Lucius didn't speak, but reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.
At that moment Kingsley Shacklebolt approached the table. After greeting them, he said, "I'm glad I found you two together. I'd like to talk to you both in my office at your earliest convenience."
"I'm available tomorrow afternoon," Lucius told him.
"I could come tomorrow morning," Andromeda said.
"Excellent," he told them. "How about ten for you, Mrs Tonks, and two-thirty for you, Mr Malfoy? Will those times be acceptable?"
After both nodded in assent, Shacklebolt stood and said, "I'll leave you to enjoy the reception, then."
Lucius smiled tightly as he watched the other wizard walk away. It seemed as if his wish to return to the Governorship was likely to become reality sooner than he expected.
--
A/N Thanks to all my readers and reviewers, new and old. It is your support of this story that has allowed it to reach nearly one hundred thousand words.
A/N Take a fun quiz on my blog, Are You A Muggle? My blog can be accessed through my profile
A/N Next Chapter, Gifts and Good News
