A/N: Currently I have three chapters left to write before I finish this wild ride. It will end up with 32 chapters total. Either way, I'm so glad that you guys are loving this one as much as I am and thank you for sticking with me as we deviate from smut to plot. Granted, there will still be plenty of smut ahead ;)

And be on the lookout for a oneshot called Parabatai coming this Sunday! It is written from Theo's POV and will detail his and Draco's alone time while Hermione was away for the week doing wedding stuff.

alpha love to honeysweetcutie

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TWENTY-ONE

The Matriarch

The week that followed the wedding felt like a regular vacation. It went just as she had planned it. Sunday afternoon, after several complaints from both men, she managed to convince them to take her shopping. She loaded herself up on books and a few other things that would occupy her time while they were at work. Though, as it turned out, they both had taken some work off as a surprise for her, leaving her hardly enough time to even give her new stack of books more than a longing look.

The next week, while Draco and Theo went to work during the day, she would take up her favorite spot on the couch and devour the book at the top of the stack. Most days she finished two by the time they came home. They found her in the same spot they had left her in, but even though they exchanged a glance amongst themselves, they didn't say anything to her about it.

It was her night out with Ginny nearly three weeks after the wedding that the topic of discussion she'd been avoiding resurfaced. Hermione had no intention of retiring before thirty and after three weeks of doing nothing but reading and fucking, it was time to figure out what she wanted to do career wise. The only problem was that she didn't know what she wanted to be when she "grew up" and Ginny wasn't any help.

It was that following Monday after Theo and Draco kissed her goodbye on their way to work that Hermione showered and left the flat a little over an hour later. A small part of her wondered if her motivation to find inspiration was due to the fact that she had read all of her books, but she would take whatever she could get. So for a good portion of the morning, she drove around town hoping it would help her brainstorm.

But as her stomach began to grumble, alerting her to the fact it was nearly lunch, Hermione gave up. The highlight of driving around was that while she was figuring out exactly where she had ended up so she could pick a place to eat, she realized she was close to Pansy's office. After a moment to work up the nerve to pop in unannounced, Hermione made her way there and didn't allow herself to back out of it.

Milly looked up from her computer and smiled at her. "Miss Granger," she said, briefly looking down at her desk. "I don't have you down for an appointment today."

"No, sorry, I was just stopping by to see if Pansy was free for lunch."

"Oh," Milly said, looking towards the office door. "She actually has a client right now. I think they were talking about getting lunch, but let me tell her-"

"Oh no, you don't have to. If she's busy-"

But Milly was already pressing buttons on her phone to page into Pansy's office. Hermione just smiled at her and listened to her say her name. A few moments later, half of Astoria's body appeared around the office door and she beckoned Hermione forward. With a sigh and a nod of thanks at Milly, Hermione moved towards Astoria.

"If she's busy-"

"She told me to drag you by your hair if necessary," Astoria cut in with a smirk.

"Would you?" Hermione asked, her voice a bit squeakier than she would have liked.

"If I showed you my salary, you wouldn't be asking me that," she replied and held the door open for Hermione.

She let out a nervous laugh as Astoria shut the door behind her. Someone snapped their fingers and they both turned to see Pansy beckoning Astoria. "Make sure everything she purchased can be delivered no later than tomorrow," she said and then smiled at Hermione. "Care to join us for lunch?"

"As I've been trying to say, if you have a client, I can come by another day. I know you weren't expecting to see me."

Pansy's eyes glittered with mischief as she stepped forward and linked her arm with Hermione's. "Trust me, you'll want to meet this client. In fact, we were just talking about you."

"Me?"

Pansy only nodded and led her across the room to her desk. She let go of her arm for a moment in favor of leaning over and grabbing the pamphlet on top the desk. "Do you like French?"

"Um, sure," Hermione said, unable to recall if she'd ever had anything other than French pastries. "Who-"

"Pansy, darling?" The voice was light and tinkling as it carried across the room.

"Write down what you want and give it to Astoria," she said before heading towards the curtained off corner of the room where the voice had come from.

Hermione leaned against the desk and wrote down the thing that sounded the most familiar to her and then set off in the direction Astoria had run off to. She gave her the piece of paper and the other girl took it, smiling at her as she was on the phone and unable to say anything else. Left to her own devices, she took to sifting through the racks in the center of the room. Whoever this client was, their taste was far more expensive than anything Pansy had showed her yet. And the styling was a little on the older, more vintage side.

"Is this her?"

The voice of the mystery client startled Hermione out of her thoughts and she turned around with a surprised expression. The manners her parents had raised her to have kicked in and she moved forward with her hand outstretched. "Hermione Granger," she said.

The woman gave her a soft smile and placed a pale hand in hers, grasping lightly, but firm enough to complete the shake. "Narcissa Malfoy. It's lovely to meet you, Miss Granger."

Hermione went still, her mouth drying as her jaw slackened. "M-Malfoy?" she stammered. "As in-"

"Draco's mother," she finished, extracting her hand and smoothing down her skirt.

Pansy was no help when she turned wide eyes her way. She simply smirked and placed her hands on her hips as she watched their interactions. "I'm sorry, I wasn't…"

"I've heard quite a bit about you from Pansy, Theo, and my son. I was hoping our first interaction would be from Draco accepting one of my dozens of invitations to lunch, but this might be better."

That was news to Hermione. Draco hadn't really spoken of his family and he certainly hadn't mentioned the fact that his mother had been asking to meet her. She wasn't sure how she felt about that considering she had brought him to meet her parents, albeit under the guise of friendship, but still. Whatever he had told his mother seemed to be out of the realm of just being his friend.

"Astoria already ran out to get the food, perhaps we could have tea while we wait?" Pansy said, turning to leave them alone as she instructed Milly to bring it to them.

Narcissa smiled as she reached out to pat Hermione on the arm. "I'm sorry," Hermione repeated, mentally cringing. "I'm not normally this shy. I just… I wasn't expecting to meet you. So soon anyway. I-"

"Relax, Miss Granger," Narcissa said, her voice soft with a hint of laughter in her eyes. "I've only heard good things."

Hermione wanted to say that she was normally better at meeting the parents, but quickly realized she hadn't ever been serious enough about anyone to actually meet them. And as they walked to the table to sit, Hermione realized she had never introduced anyone to her parents other than Theo and Draco. She wondered if Narcissa only knew her as her son's flatmate and friend or as more. And if so, just how much more?

"So what do you do?" Narcissa asked. "Pansy mentioned something about publishing?"

"Uh, recently yes, but I quit a few weeks ago." Her heart skipped a beat at the way it sounded and she hoped Narcissa didn't see her as a gold digger.

"What happened?" Pansy asked as she rejoined them.

"I found out the day before I was supposed to be off for the wedding that my time off had been cancelled. I haven't been happy there in a long time so I quit before I could let myself be talked into working instead of attending the wedding."

"Good for you," Narcissa said, adding one lump of sugar to her tea. "Will you work for another publisher?"

"I'm not sure. I've been trying to figure out what I want to do, but I'm at a loss."

"You should have said something sooner," Pansy said with a sigh. "I love this kind of stuff."

Hermione laughed as adjusted her own cup of tea with honey and a splash of milk. She caught Narcissa's smile and did a double take. "Draco takes his tea the same way."

Heat crept to her cheeks as she stirred and then took a sip.

"Come on, let's make a list," Pansy said, excitement clear in her voice. "I'm sure the three of us can get a solid list of potential careers listed by the time we're through with lunch."

"Thank you," she said with a sigh of relief. "I don't know how much more I can take doing nothing all day."

By the time Astoria came back with the food, they already had a few things listed and the awkwardness of meeting Narcissa was gone. The rest of the afternoon flew by as she got to know Draco's mother and found herself enjoying the company and learning quite a bit about not only the three women, but Draco and Theo as well.

Later that afternoon, Hermione had gone home with her list of potential careers to explore and tucked it into her nightstand. Wanting to speak to Draco and Theo about her options, she put it out of her mind for the mean time and dove into one of her books to pass the time before they came home. She didn't have to wait long before they came into the flat, arguing over opposing sports teams. They stopped when she greeted them each with a kiss and then asked them about their days.

"What about yours?" Draco asked.

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked me," she said, grinning at the way they glanced at each other and then quirked their brows at her. "I decided to go for a drive and clear my head. I found myself near Pansy's office and decided to drop by for lunch."

"That's good. How was it?" Theo questioned, not noticing the way Draco had gone still.

"Lunch was great. I learned so much," she drawled, looking directly at Draco. "Like the fact that your mother has been asking you to have the three of us come over to dinner so your parents can meet me."

Draco swallowed hard and gave her a sheepish grin. "My mother was there, wasn't she?"

"She's lovely, by the way. A picture-perfect representation of a modern aristocratic woman." She tipped her head to the side and reached for Draco's hand. "Why did you tell me she wanted to meet me?" she asked. "If it was because you weren't ready to tell her anything, that's fine, but-"

"It's not that," he interrupted, tightening his hold on her hand. "I want you to meet them, I just… I've never brought anyone to meet them before. Anyone they didn't know from my childhood, that is."

"And before you say anything about it being because you're in a different social class as them, Hermione, that isn't it either," Theo informed her, his voice stern.

Draco's eyes narrowed at her for a moment. "Was that something that ever crossed your mind?"

She gave a light shrug and tried to tug her hand back, but he refused to relinquish his hold. "It might have."

He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms so tight around her she nearly had trouble breathing. "That's not it, Hermione. I promise you. If anything, I'm afraid that they'll like you more than me."

She laughed despite herself and returned Draco's embrace with one of her own. "You're their son."

"You should see how they treat Theo," he mumbled and Theo snorted from off to the side. "But in all honesty, Hermione, I just wasn't sure if we were all there yet. I know I met your parents, but that wasn't as your boyfriend. This would be different. This means it's not just casual and fun."

She pulled back and cupped his face with one hand while she reached out for Theo's hand with the other. "I'd like to think we're there," she said, her voice soft. "But regardless, your mother is expecting us over for dinner Saturday so I don't think it's up to us anymore."

"I'm sorry the first time you met her was by surprise."

"At least the hardest part is out of the way."

"Hardest part?" they asked in unison as she drew away from them.

"My father-"

"I might not have that much experience meeting the parents, but everything I learned today tells me that so long as I have your mother's approval, your father's will follow. I'm actually looking forward to meeting Lucius." She paused and turned her gaze to Theo. "Which means at some point, I would like to meet your uncle."

"I figured," he said with a smile. "I'll arrange it."

"Thank you," she replied and made her way to the kitchen for a drink. As they both absorbed her news, they told her about their day, thus beginning their nightly routine. As she listened to them both, her thoughts drifted to the upcoming dinner at Draco's parents house. She had never wanted an official introduction to family before, but now that it was planned, she was more than ready for it. She was just glad they were all on the same page.