Title: 500 Hours
Author: pantheradraconis
Rating: T
Pairing: Hermione/Narcissa
Summary: Hermione, unexpectedly crashing and burning after the war, finds herself in community service with nonother than Narcissa Black. Through the course of their mandatory 500 hours, the two slowly find a mutual understanding which eventually blossoms into a relationship.
Narcissa began to ask more questions, but Hermione turned and looked at her. "I am a bit exhausted, would you mind if we don't do this tonight?"
She didn't want to agree, but Narcissa found herself nodding. "I understand and will let it go tonight. If you, well, if you have any problems, you will reach out to one of your friends, yes?"
"Of course, good evening, Narcissa." And Hermione disapparated.
Hermione sat at the kitchen counter, tapping out the tune of Teddy's favorite dinosaur song against her teacup. Out of the 46 days of community service she had served, the brunette could count on one hand the amount of times she had arrived first. It was now edging past 6:30 AM and Narcissa still hadn't shown up.
Andy busied herself with her cleaning and Teddy ran around in circles until he fell over in a fit of giggles. Hermione continued to tap on her mug before subconsciously turning it iced cold. Shocked, she pushed the tea away, wondering when the last time she had done accidental magic.
"Tada!" Teddy yelled out from directly next to Hermione, who jumped, screamed, knocked the teacup off the counter, and fell out of the stool.
"Oh, uh, are you ok, Hermione?" Teddy asked, his blue hair looming over the brunette's face as he looked down at her.
"What happened here?" Narcissa asked. The blonde had entered the home at the same time Hermione screamed. She held her wand in her hand, ready for a fight. "Why are you on the floor?"
"I made her tea turn to ice!" Teddy yelled out before being quickly scolded, although with a mixture of compliment on his ability, and shushed back into his play room by Andy.
Narcissa reached out her left hand while tucking her wand back in her dress pocket. Hermione grasped the hand, noted the scent of pine and vanilla, and allowed Narcissa to pull her to her feet. There was a strange, small part of Hermione that wanted to step into the older blonde's arms once she found her feet.
Instead, she shook off the ridiculous thought and asked, "Why are you late?"
"I overslept," Narcissa replied, grabbing two baskets and turning toward the door.
"But your shoes are matching," Hermione noted, grabbing the last basket. The two unceremoniously left the home, both forgetting to say goodbye to Andy.
Narcissa smirked. The younger witch figured she must also be remembering the day she had rushed in with mismatched shoes and a grumbling hangover. Today was different though; there was something else behind that smirk, something that made Hermione's stomach flutter.
"Tell me, what are your parent's names?"
"What?" The brunette tripped over her foot and whipped her head up at the blonde. Narcissa simply kept walking, not giving Hermione a second glance. "Why? Wait, what?"
"The two people who raised you, the ones known as parents. Well, unless muggles call them something different during the daytime." Hermione listened to the older witch speak but all she heard was the snark and sarcasm etched in the words. "Your mum and da, your ancestors, originators, begetters. Those that came before you."
Hermione knew Narcissa was playing with her and that made her all the angrier.
"Why do you want to know their names?" Her voice was deep and agitated.
Narcissa turned back to her slowly, realizing for the first time that the brunette was genuinely upset.
"I didn't mean to cause you more harm, dear. I simply wanted to know more about them."
"You have no right to ask me about them."
"And why not?" This time Narcissa paused and looked over at Hermione. She waited a moment before taking several large strides over to the shorter woman. "I want to learn about them, and you. I wish to know what happened."
Hermione closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears. "I don't like talking about it."
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't." The blonde reached out and cupped Hermione's face in her hand. The brunette couldn't help but lean into the comforting hand. "Have you spoken to anyone else about what happened? Besides your group? Anyone that may know the truth in it all?"
Hermione signed and nodded, her face still in Narcissa's palm. "Harry and Ron both know, obviously, but they don't know how to help. I, I tried to talk to Molly and also to Andy, I thought maybe, but no, they were both so angry." Hermione's words were lost in sobs as she attempted to relive some of the hardest points in her life. "Harry and Ron wanted to help but they didn't know who else could help. We didn't know what to do."
The younger woman leaned into Narcissa, closing her eyes against the blonde's shoulder. After a few beats, she felt arms wrapped around her and soft words of reassurance. She wasn't sure what the words were, but she knew they included understanding and acceptance. It was almost too much to handle, and Hermione cried all the harder.
"What did you say to her?"
In the late afternoon, Andy was sitting on the couch enjoying a cuppa while Teddy took his nap. The intrusion from her younger sister was not on her to-do list.
Andy looked up at the perfectly poised, taller than normal, skillfully put together, version of Narcissa. The blonde had her hands on her hips and her lips in a straight, very angry, line. It was the eyes that told Andy everything she needed to know. Narcissa was hurt on someone else's behalf.
It had happened often in their days at Hogwarts, when Bella would bully a boy Narcissa liked or an older student who attempted to outsmart the eldest of the sisters but Bella reacted too venomously. It happened when Regulus and Andy fought over who was the better flyer and Narcissa attempted to alleviate the tension. It happened when Cygnus brought home a gift for Bella but not for Andy.
In all these times, and so many more, Narcissa would approach the bully, the arguer, or the boaster and demanded retribution for the injured party. During the wars, Andy had wondered often if Narcissa had in fact lost that aspect of her personality. The actions she went through to protect her son, though, showed it never wavered. Perhaps she got lost a few times but never stopped.
"Do you even realize the damage you were a part of?"
Andy had been silent for too long, inspecting her sister's anger. She blinked and asked, "What are you talking about? Or rather, who are you talking about?"
"Hermione."
"Ah, of course." Andy nodded, the realization that the only common denominators between her and her sister consisted of Draco and Hermione. "What did I do to Hermione?"
"What didn't you do! How could you treat her the way you did when she came to you for help?"
"Help?" Andy was genuinely confused at this point. "When did Hermione come to me for help?"
"After the second war; she came asking for help in regard to her parents."
"Mm," Andy nodded and found her own anger. "Yes, the parents she Obliviated so thoroughly the spell couldn't be reversed. Do you understand that? She took away all memories of herself from her parents. Can you even imagine? If Nymphadora had ever even thought of doing that to me and…"
"So what?" Narcissa demanded, raising her hands over her head in exasperation.
"So what?!" Andy jumped from her seat, almost knocking her tea from the table. "So what?! What kind of person does that? The very idea that she believed she had the right to take those memories?!"
The two were standing toe to toe yelling back and forth for several minutes when something Narcissa said finally made its way to Andy's ears and into her thoughts.
"I agree with you!"
"Wait, if you agree with me then why are we having this argument?" Andy asked, taking a step back.
"You can't change what she's done but you have the power to help her fix her mistakes."
Andy deflated. She saw the concern in her baby sister's eyes and realized her own mistakes. "You're right. Arguing with her now about what she should have done won't change anything."
"Exactly."
"Well, what do you propose?"
"Do you remember that summer we spent in Fenghuang? Mother and Auntie Walburga met with an old wizard there. I tried to find his name in my files but I still haven't unpacked everything. I need your help in finding him."
A/N: A little more flirtation, a little more trust/friendship building, and a whole lot of moving plotline. I also have a present surprise for you in the next chapter, so stay tuned!
[Saoirse820] ::Hands over box of tissues:: It gets worse before it gets better but it always gets better.
[Shadow994] I am trying to amp up the flirting and promise they will have more reasons to do so very soon. Very soon indeed.
[JenDamn] Definitely not Narcissa! Hah! I thought the same about Hermione. She did the research, for sure!
[tattooedsappho] You greatly underestimate my abilities to write sexy times. I will have to correct that. ;-)
[Yanana] Not quite a romantic light yet, but definitely as someone she cares for.
[persephones_flower] How about we just jump to a date? Maybe you'll have to wait and see!
[nanonano] I almost want to keep them cute and clueless...