Malfoy stared at the closed door for a minute and then turned back to them. He looked between them and then walked to an armchair and sat. Accepting the two fingers of whiskey in a glass that floated toward him.
"Your a lucky bastard or a genius. I can't decide. It changes from day to day." Was what the prat said. Maks snorted his agreement and Draco looked up at him.
"Now that he is here, will you answer any of my questions?" Was the next thing he said and Thorfinn didn't look at Maks. Just sat down on the settee he didn't like and absently thought about how many times a day he wished she had renovated the whole tower.
"No. Thor might though. If he wants to." Maks answered in a casual voice before sitting opposite him in the same position. Relaxed into a corner with his arm propped on an end and the glass balanced between two fingers there.
"Alright. Well Rowle." Draco demanded and Thorfinn couldn't help the eye roll at the tone expecting answers.
"Why don't you just say whatever you want to." He suggested and waited. Sure that it would aggravate the younger wizard
Draco watched him for a moment and then with a last glance at Maks relaxed into his own chair and sipped.
"How did you get her to do this?" Draco asked and he didn't show his surprise.
"I asked her to." Was his eventual answer and he could tell it surprised the younger wizard.
"Asked her to. Asked her to raise your son and defend the entirety of your birthright? In exchange for what?" The blonde seemed confused and Thorfinn could understand.
"How is this any of your business?" He decided to ask in return. It wasn't of course.
"It isn't but you've been in there and for a year and a half I've been dealing with her. It's not easy to deal with a witch like her. Especially without knowing her motivations or what holds are on her." The blond seemed honest and Thorfinn thought that over.
"Holds on her?" He asked and Maks shifted nearly imperceptibly across from him. It was out of the corner of his eyes that he noticed but it meant something.
"Is there a betrothal? More than the papers she has publicly claimed and had validated. The witch refused veritaserum and the validation processes can only be used on documents as they are provided." Malfoy spoke as if he didn't know this and he just blinked.
How to find out what he meant by that. A betrothal, why would he think there was one. She hadn't asked the elf for that, hadn't used it but he had done his part of it incase she needed to.
"Would a betrothed witch be seen publicly with so many?" Maks asked and Thorfinn didn't look his thanks for the question but felt it. Even had he said it, the effect would have been different. Malfoy looked between them at that.
"What do you think those public events were? Dates?" The question seemed genuine and Maks shifted.
"I've only been out for one and the papers made enough of a fuss about her and Finnigan." Maks answered. He didn't remember seeing any articles about that and wondered why Maks hadn't said anything.
"You'll notice she hasn't spoken to him since he made those unwise comments in hearing of another." His tone was dry and Thorfinn looked his question this time.
"Read them Rowle. I don't know what you've been doing since you came home. Surely you could spare a few hours to open up those files she has for you. I've heard her instruct her elf to file things in at least four categories." Malfoy was looking at him with interest now and Thorfinn didn't like it at all.
"Maybe the little cub is right." He said musingly and looked to Maks. the witch had made a few comments about Malfoy and people's questions.
"More and more I find myself willing to concede that she is more often than not." The man replied easily and Malfoy snorted.
"Little cub. That's what the elf calls her. Is it your name for her? How did you manage that? Did Dolohov give you time while trying to drag her to my place?" Instantly Thorfinn was enraged. He tried to keep his masks in place and breathe evenly. How dare the little fucker throw that in his face. Having been there. Puked while telling Dolohov about it. That's how him and Maks knew right away. The little bastard had flooed to Nott's place where they were all staying. Those not demanded at the Dark Lords immediate beck and call at that moment anyways. Come out of the fireplace and vomited until Theo called an elf to fix him so they could find out what was wrong.
"That is unwise." Maks tone was drawling and low. Dangerous in the same way his uncles was. No Russian lilt to it though.
"Maybe but it's fucked up. She is trapped by you and your shit. Not the boy. She would kill me if I thought of him that way or Merlin forbid, said it aloud. Everything else though. Even the damn dinners. 'It's important that Soren grows up with enough of the small things to allow him entry into your world with as little to hamper him as possible.' Just one example of all the things she does. For you. Why? Why would a witch like her turn down apprenticeships and marriage offers? Career offers and even awards or book deals? See no one romantically or allow anyone entry into her life. If you think I haven't noticed the way she makes sure that no one takes a single thing from you then you are wrong." The man looked frustrated and Thorfinn tried to think over what he had said. They would have to talk. It was clear that he didn't understand what had been happening. Even most of what Malfoy meant.
"Her choices are her own. I have precisely no hold over her. Excepting the ones she has accepted on her own." His words were so even as to be emotionless. It was all he could do not to demand answers from the blonde. The man drained his glass and then began to roll it from hand to hand. Looking at him. Assessing and thinking the words over.
"She chose to blood adopt him? To force abayance of your hereditary seat? It was her idea to rebuild your vaults and begin the processes to seal avenues of entry? Hermione Granger chose to forgo changing laws for all in favour of championing the ones supporting the foundations of the sacred twenty eight?" His tone was thoughtful and then something changed.
"When? She was putting Theo off all of sixth year and you were gone. Until you came through the fucking cabinet. Before then? You had a betrothal agreement. Sadie." He internally cursed at the mention of Nott. Putting him off. What did that mean? He was hardly in a place to complain, having been married himself. He didn't like it though and liked it less now than he might have then. He could answer one thing though and it wouldn't change much about what the blonde knew. He wasn't betraying confidence or their privacy.
"Hers. I made him hers." That was all the answer he would give Draco Malfoy or anyone else.
Hermione sat on her bed. Waiting. She had every night since he came home but this time she knew it would be different. She was dressed mostly the same as the first time and the setting was the same but this would be a different kind of conversation. Their first one that was about things outside of Soren and things connected to him personally. The little boy had been more demanding than usual and Hermione was pleased at the more normal behaviour today. Willing to go to another and not demanding she or Finn be with him. He had just smiled one of his gorgeous smiles and demanded Ginny fly him. She was the best in his eyes, more relaxed than Harry was certainly. More confidant in the magics set up to protect the little boys.
Draco had done this deliberately she was sure and what he might have said to Finn after they left the horrid sitting room was taking up a portion of her thoughts. Others were centred around what he would think of things. How he would view the actions and opinions of others and her responses to them. Advocating for Soren first, above even herself was difficult. That was an understatement. Protecting him and his assets meant playing a balancing act between making sure his traditional rights were observed and intact against her personal wants for individual rights. It was complicated and she didn't have much leverage. It was made clear to her often enough.
The way she had to go about things and be able to be transparent. Nothing of Rowle's could be used by her under differing circumstances. People liked to throw regulations at her, ones that forced her to find another way. Still within the regulations of course but not accounted for. It was hard. So difficult and she was ashamed about her feelings. So many of them. The relief she felt at handing it over to him. Uncertainty about what he would think about what she had done and what he would do with it. She had been so careful, trying to make sure all the monetary laws and agreements could be met. Balancing books against the levies and contracts that dictated how much money could be moved from the scions accounts into the family vaults. The fines ended in just under four months. The lawyers had been helpful in securing the payment schedule. This family wasn't the only ones who would be sunk by having it all called in.
This economy was dictated by relatively few. Bankrolled and owned privately. You put many out of a job and noticeably further deplete a still fragile economy by sinking even two or three families. There was no seat holder on the Wizengamot to fight for them personally and the fines had been heavy. The taxation nearly highest it could be within their sacred and ancient laws. The last was thought sarcastically. Even in her own mind she could see the waste of it. Building Soren a fortune would have been easier than keeping this one alive. She couldn't abandon it though. Outside of the fact that is was her little boys birth right, people did depend on it.
It was a much used excuse with Harry. How many people this would affect negatively or even the availability of some things if some of the import companies went under. That wasn't the whole truth though. This was Finn's and it hadn't taken very long for her stubborn temper to decide that was reason enough. She was a muggleborn witch, a hero. Then she was the guardian of a pureblood scion and no one understood. Every push to find out why she was doing it and what she was gaining had led them to this time. It was a shifting landscape but now. Now it would be over. A Rowle to deal with the contracts and someone with full authority. Someone who could use that Wizengamot seat that mocked her when she had to prove herself to everyone. Who could sign papers without having to have several in order allowing her to do that. Or even having the bloody business manager be able to sign things. Useless frustration. Endless tedious details.
Draco had other issues though. Ones he and been quietly amassing. He came at it in such a Slytherin way too. He had even asked her if they were betrothed when she was drunk once. She and just scoffed and left. Then taken a sober up potion and cried in the shower. Upset about the question and it's answers. The fact that everyone felt the need to try and get information out of her. Not everyone but it felt she could trust so few. So few saw things as she did. Even Maks. He watched her. Had since she watched him come through the door from the parole processing offices of the DMLE. The look had changed over time and she was comfortable with his presence quite quickly.
What she wasn't comfortable with was the occasional questions that she didn't quite understand and some she felt unable to answer. Her polite and honest, if vague, responses about herself had eventually led to what she thought was passive information collection. It hadn't taken her very long at all to realise that he was as interested in her and Soren as Harry might be if the situations were reversed. He came at it differently and had mostly been a silent supportive shadow. His own house being of Russian descent, he didn't have the front row seat to the intricacies of politics here or a seemingly critical seat in its venerable halls. The Wizengamot or the sacred twenty eight council that she was threatened with every so often.
Hermione thought that it hadn't taken him very long to ascertain that Soren was being well taken care of. He asked questions about him but they seemed to be ones of interest. In what he did or knew about something. The science lessons had impressed him and their magical history story times had gotten a sideways glance from him. Soren's general interest in things and the outlets for his energy seemed to meet with his approval, or something close enough. It was her that he seemed to be considering. There was far less wariness from him now and in the last month or two he had quietly stepped up his time here and his general support of her. Things like signalling dinner was ready. It wasn't important, but it was one of those small protocols that showed your inclusion in the exalted few. Just one of a myriad of convoluted etiquette intricacies that made up what she had decided to think of as a culture. Finn's culture. It had been validating. That Maks had quietly supported her and reinforced things she had been trying to teach Soren. It gave him a man that Hermione knew was Someone the boy could always trust to set an example. Or someone she thought Finn would trust to do so. That was it. There were people she trusted but Soren wasn't only hers. He had a father and one who wasn't absent by choice.
The door clicked as the handle was turned and she didn't have to move any part of her to watch it open. She had been staring at it for what felt like ages and not very long at the same time.
He turned as he entered and closed the door. His usual evening attire and damp hair. She barely appreciated the lines of his shoulders and back before he was turning to her. Those blue eyes were locked on hers from the moment he turned to face her. He was leaning against the closed door and hermione could only wait. For whatever question he asked or whatever he said. The nearly cerulean blue was vibrant against his paler skin and golden hair. A bit darker than when it was dry. The slight sheen of his not having shaved since that morning showed on his jaw and his arms were crossed on his firm chest. Even in her uncertainty she could admire him. He was so gorgeous and looking at her with intensity, she wanted to shiver at what she could see there.