February 2002
Hermione would never have thought that she'd be having tea with Pansy Parkinson. She had gone to lunch with the Slytherin and a few dinners but always with someone else in their workplace — never them alone.
Hermione knew that Pansy probably didn't know who she was and might have not felt as awkward as Hermione did, but she just couldn't put it pass the Slytherin not to be mean. Maybe it was the years of bullying from Pansy but there something about her that made Hermione feel cautious — having tea with her definitely sent out warning signs in his head.
Pansy had invited Hermione to her office for a drink. She was supposed to meet Ginny, but Pansy's owl came first with a note saying she needed help with something.
Hermione originally wanted to decline — there were so many other people whom Pansy could interview. But when she arrived at the Daily Prophet Headquarters that day, Madeline was already talking about her interview with Pansy.
Thus, Hermione found herself lounging on Pansy's office chair hearing Pansy talk about her latest article which, to her annoyance, was about her and her friends.
"I know you don't love talking about it, but the people want to know what's going on with our lovely trio, and their significant others," Pansy said, placing tea in front of Hermione.
Hermione looked at it carefully but it didn't drink.
"Why?" was the first thing Hermione asked after hearing what the article was about.
"It's Valentines in a few days," Pansy said. "Madeline said they want to know about your love lives to show the people that despite the war we're all doing well," Pansy explained. She smiled forcefully as if this wasn't something she wanted to write about as well.
Somehow, it became easier to talk to Pansy about this.
"We're not exactly the greatest role models. We're only in our early 20s," Hermione said. Resigned, she grabbed her teacup and started to drink. Pansy watched her carefully until she put the cup down.
"So what do you want to know?" Hermione asked.
"Well, who are the golden trios significant others?" Hermione rolled her eyes because Pansy would've known the answer to that without asking her but maybe she just wanted to justify calling Hermione into her office.
"Harry has Ginny," Hermione answered. Pansy wrote down something and Hermione waited for her to finish before continuing. "They've been together since we were in Hogwarts and the war just brought them closer together," Hermione explained.
"Really? I thought that the majority of the war you and Potter were on the run?" Pansy asked. Hermione shrugged, "The war made us learn things about the world quickly — things we wouldn't have learned as children," Pansy listened intently and then nodded her head when Hermione was done explaining. She scribbled what Hermione said and continued.
"They have no children yet?" Pansy asked. Hermione shook her head, "Ginny is too busy right now and Harry is just starting to get used to his job."
"And Weasley?" Pansy asked. "He's married to Sue Li, a Magizoologist whom he met at the Magical Creature sanctuary when he was interning in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," Pansy scratched on the parchment. Hermione realized that unlike Rita Skeeter, Pansy wrote down all the things herself. Hermione found herself smiling.
Maybe her judgment of Pansy not being better than Rita was false. At least, in a way, Pansy worked on things herself. Hermione could commend her for that.
"Who is she? I don't think I've heard of her," Pansy asked when she was finished writing. Hermione took a sip of tea first before answering, "She was in our year. A Ravenclaw," Pansy stopped writing and looked somewhere in the office with a distant look as if she was remembering something, "Well, I don't know too many Ravenclaw our year," Pansy remarked.
"I am guilty of that too. Admittedly, she did say that she had always stuck to her common room. She says it was much more comfortable to study there. We were classmates in Ancient Runes but I've only spoken to her once," Hermione said.
" Figures, I didn't take Ancient Runes," Pansy said, scribbling down what Hermione just said.
"They have a child, yes?" she asked. Hermione nodded, "Hugo," she uttered.
"What a curious name," Pansy remarked
"It was the most sensible name in the list, to be honest. If Ginny and I didn't interfere, they would've named their child after a magical creature." Pansy — to Hermione's surprise — laughed.
Hermione took a sip of her tea again, catching Pansy's attention. When Hermione put her cup down, Pansy resumed writing.
"And you?" Pansy asked, cocking her brow at Hermione curiously.
"I don't have anyone," Pansy looked at her with thinned eyes — suspicious — as if she knew something that Hermione didn't.
"Okay," Pansy said.
"What about you?" Hermione asked.
Pansy looked up at her, wondering what she meant. Hermione smiled sneakily, "Theo Nott had told me you're married to Justin Finch-Fletchley," Hermione explained.
Pansy let out a scoff as if this wasn't something she was eager to talk about. "It just happened," Pansy said "You're friendly with a lot of Slytherins, I've noticed," she added. Hermione didn't fail to notice how quickly Pansy shifted the conversation back to her. She shrugged
"I guess you a lot aren't so bad."
A knock on the door broke the conversation between the two girls. Pansy walked towards the door, accidentally dropping her notes on the floor. "Parkinson, Madeline is looking for you in her office," Hermione heard Madeline's secretary say from the doorway. Hermione picked up the fallen notes and put it back on the table. As she fixed the parchments on the table, she noticed a curious thing. Besides her name, Pansy scribbled Draco with a question mark and then crossed it out.
She tried to remember where in their conversation he mentioned Draco, but as far as she knew she hadn't.
Pansy came back a few minutes later causing Hermione to jump from her seat and look away from the parchment. Pansy looked down at her desk and then at Hermione before collecting all the parchments and putting it in a drawer in his table.
"I guess we're done for the day," Pansy said, locking her drawer.
Hermione nodded and smiled, "That was a good conversation." she said, proceeding to stand up. As she left the confines of Pansy's office and walked towards hers, the only thing running in her mind was the name of Draco in that parchment.
Did Pansy know who Draco was?
The whole thing kept Hermione in a daze. Throughout the day, she tried to remember all the moments she had talked to Pansy. It was impossible to remember everything. They were workmates — they've talked a lot.
She kept telling herself that somewhere along the time she had talked to Pansy in the office, she might have mentioned Draco. She kept trying to remember if she had somehow introduced Draco to Pansy. Did she say his name during the time they met in front of the office?
What's worse is that Hermione was sure she never mentioned him. No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn't think of a specific time wherein she mentioned him. Of course, there was the possibility that Astoria Greengrass blabbered to Pansy about who Draco was.
Theo had mentioned that despite the falling out between Daphne and Pansy, Astoria remained in a correspondence with her sister's friend since the younger witch apparently didn't have any reason to not talk to Pansy.
Nonetheless, Pansy knew who Draco was -that bit was obvious. But what is confusing Hermione now is why Pansy kept pretending she didn't?
After a long day at work, she decided to floo directly to Draco's place. When she stepped out of the fireplace, Draco was already in the living room waiting for her.
"Granger, mum is asking us for tea over the weekend. Do you want to come?" Draco said. He was holding a note, and the Malfoy's eagle owl was perched on the windowsill, probably waiting for a response to Narcissa's letter. Hermione didn't answer immediately, which caught Draco's attention. "Hermione?" he called.
"Hmm?" Draco eyed her curiously before repeating his request.
"Oh sure," she uttered once she understood.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about something for work," Hermione excused. She went to her room still a little suspicious of Pansy but deciding not to tell Draco anything about it.
There were a million reasons why Hermione didn't want to tell him about Pansy and her doubts about the Slytherin witch. The most compelling reason was that maybe it wasn't Pansy behind all this and that there was a completely rational explanation for how she knew who Draco was. Nevertheless, Hermione wanted to be sure.
She didn't want to add to the crack that had already formed between the friend group by accusing Pansy something she probably didn't do. If she was behind everything happening with Draco, Hermione wanted more evidence to pin on her.
During the whole week, Hermione had watched Pansy carefully. Pansy didn't look or act guilty.
Pansy was a smart girl. Most of Hermione's N.E.W.T.s in the core subjects she attended with Pansy. She knew that Pansy knew that she saw what was written on the piece of parchment back in her office — she wasn't exactly subtle. Despite that, Pansy didn't seem to be bothered that she knew something.
Come Friday, Hermione stopped searching for answers. She really didn't have anything to hold against Pansy.
When the weekend came, she barely bothered to think about Pansy. All her thoughts about Pansy eventually escaped her head when they got to Malfoy Manor, where she was met with a very excited kid and an equally excited guardian.
"Aunt 'Mione," Teddy shouted as soon as he saw her. Hermione opened her arms to welcome Teddy for a hug. "I haven't seen you in a while," Teddy pouted, hugging Hermione more tightly.
"I've been a little busy with work." Teddy continued to pout and then Hermione pointed at Draco, "Blame him," she teased.
Teddy thinned his eyes at Draco and huffed in annoyance. Draco looked shocked — staring at Hermione wondering what she'd told Teddy. Hermione just smiled and shrugged, following the two sisters towards the garden, where tea and toast had been prepared. Draco decided to go play with Teddy to reverse the first impression Hermione gave Teddy of him. This left Hermione with Andromeda and Narcissa.
The sisters were busy talking to themselves — Hermione concentrated on fixing her drink.
Hermione was just trying out the taste of her drink when Narcissa said, "It's almost Valentine's, what are your plans?"
Hermione put down her drink and shrugged, "Probably work. It's a weekday," Hermione answered.
"Typical Hermione to celebrate Valentines at work," Andromeda cooed. "Won't Draco be taking you anywhere?" she asked. Hermione choked on her drink.
"We're not like that," Hermione clarified, wiping her lips. The sisters nodded in understanding, eyeing each other knowingly. They didn't say anything to Hermione but continued to talk to each other about their plans during the weekend. Hermione scooted her chair closer to where Teddy and Draco were in the garden to watch what they were doing.
"Do you want to see a trick?" Draco asked. Teddy nodded — excited. Draco removed his wand from his pocket and whispered an incantation. From the tip of his wand, a wisp of white light shot out, and then a beautiful peacock emerged, strutting towards Teddy.
Hermione's jaw dropped in awe looking at Draco's patronus. So Draco had managed to cast one. Hermione found herself smiling proudly.
"How appropriate that Draco's Patronus is a peacock," Andromeda whispered. Hermione looked back at the sisters and saw both looking at Draco's patronus. Narcissa was looking at Draco in shock and in mild curiosity, while Andromeda looked pleased. Hermione stared at Andromeda though, "Why is it appropriate?" Hermione asked.
"I always associated peacocks to the Malfoys," Andromeda remarked.
It took a while for Hermione to understand Andromeda's words. She continued to stare at Andromeda with so many questions running in her mind wondering which one to ask first. Before she could ask anything though, Teddy rushed towards her.
"Aunt 'Mione. Draco has a white animal like yours," Teddy said excitedly. He climbed up on the empty seat beside Hermione dropping the paper animals that Draco charmed to move.
"Yes, but it's a different animal," Hermione explained.
Teddy nodded. "His is prettier," he remarked playing with a paper raven. Hermione heard Draco laugh behind her, causing her to roll her eyes. "Is that so?" she said, glancing at Draco with a challenging stare.
"Can I make my own animal too?" Teddy asked. Hermione smiled and nodded, "Soon," she said, ruffling Teddy's hair. Teddy turned around to look at the peacock again but was shocked when it had disappeared. He started crying that the peacock had left him. Seeing this, Draco conjured his Patronus again which, upon seeing it, made Teddy calm down.
"He seems to be in love with your Patronus, Draco. You wouldn't be able to leave now," Narcissa teased. Draco's eyes widened at the prospect. Andromeda, smiling, removed a glass sphere from her pocket. She muttered something under her breath that Hermione didn't hear — making the sphere open. She then directed Draco's Patronus inside the sphere. The sphere closed and inside, flitting around was the peacock patronus — small enough to fit and wander inside.
"How'd you do that?" Hermione asked. Andromeda raised the sphere on eye level and smiled sadly. "Ted made it for me," she said. Andromeda passed the sphere to Teddy, who was happily throwing it around. "Narcissa would usually send me a Patronus before she got married. I was always so sad when it goes. Ted made something to preserve it. He made the spheres, I placed the magic for it to work and prevent it from breaking,"
All of them sighed in relief upon hearing this, after Teddy coincidentally dropped the sphere he was holding.
"He said it reminded him of what the muggles called snow-globes," Andromeda remarked. "It was helpful once Nymphadora was born. She was just like Teddy as a child."
She removed a few smaller marbles from her pocket and passed some to Hermione.
"I bring them around a lot since it reminds me of Ted. You might need it someday," Hermione was unsure when she'd need it, but she took it with her anyway. Teddy then started saying that she wanted one from each of them too. Hermione conjured her otter Patronus, then Andromeda conjured hers which was a fox. Everyone watched Narcissa, and Teddy turned to her expectantly. Narcissa ruffled his hair, "I can't make one, dear." Teddy looked sad but nodded understandingly before shoving the paper animals from the table and replacing them with the patronus-filled spheres.
"Did you like my gift, Aunt 'Mione? Where did you put it?" Teddy asked. He started buttering his scones as he waited for Hermione's answer.
"Your gift," Hermione laughed, eyes widening, trying to think the last place she put Teddy's gift. Draco raised a brow at her questioningly, mouthing "what gift?"
"It's at Draco's place, in my bedroom," Hermione lied, shaking her head at Draco.
"Can I see it?" Teddy asked, expectant. Hermione looked at Draco. "Ask Draco if you're allowed to go to the house," she said. Finding another reason to talk to Draco, Teddy leaped off from his chair and ran around the table towards Draco to harass him on going to his house.
"Gift?" Draco asked at the same time Hermione said, "So when will you tell me you're able to cast a Patronus?"
They floo-ed back to the Paris house after a long day at the Manor. Teddy had fallen asleep, allowing both Hermione and Draco to leave. Hermione went to rest on the sofa and looked up at Draco.
"Teddy gave me a gift on my birthday. I'm sure it's in the room somewhere," Hermione answered first.
Draco sat beside her before answering, "I've been practising," Hermione smiled at him, patting his shoulder before standing up to search for Teddy's gift. Draco watched her and sighed, retreating to his study.
Once the sun started setting, Draco started hearing voices from the living room. He put down the work he was doing and looked out to see Blaise, Theo and Neville Longbottom awkwardly standing in front of the fireplace.
"What are you all doing here?" Draco heard Hermione ask. He turned towards her bedroom to see her peeking out from the door.
Theo put his hands on his hips, "We were thinking of ways to get the potion to Narcissa," Theo said. Hermione then turned to Neville, "And you?"
Neville smiled awkwardly, "Zabini invited me to help brew the additional potions. In case Theo might have forgotten how to do it," Theo glared at him. "They actually needed ingredients," Neville amended. Theo rolled his eyes.
"I'm not a competent Potion's Master if I forget these things. Admit it, you like Longbottom around," Theo teased looking at Blaise.
The latter snickered but didn't deny anything which made Neville somewhat uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything as well.
"I brought food," Neville said raising the paper bag he was carrying. Draco smiled and walked towards him taking the bag from him. "Let's prepare this in the kitchen, Longbottom," Draco walked towards the kitchen without waiting for a reply. Neville turned to Hermione for help but Hermione just shrugged. Looking nervous, Neville followed Draco to the kitchen.
Hermione turned the whole room already, yet she still wasn't able to find the gift that Teddy gave her. She walked around Draco's flat, searching every surface for the gift. Blaise and Theo were busy financing for more Ashwinder eggs while Draco was cataloguing the new artefacts that came to his company earlier that week. Neville was in the kitchen, washing the dishes in the kitchen and fixing them tea.
Draco was the first to notice her.
"What are you doing, Granger?" Hermione looked up, surprised, as if only realizing there were other people in the room.
"Oh, don't mind me. Carry on," Hermione said. Draco stopped what he was doing to watch Hermione. "You know, Granger, if you just tell us what you're looking for, we might actually help," Draco remarked.
"I'm looking for Teddy's gift. From my birthday," Hermione said, now removing all the contents of her book bag. Blaise and Theo looked at Draco for an explanation but Draco only snickered, "I thought you had it in your room?" He teased.
"Well, apparently I don't," she answered looking away. Blaise eyed Theo, but Theo just shook his head, whispering to the former that whatever was happening was between Hermione and Draco
"Could you help?" Hermione shouted. No one knew who she was talking to. Neville, who just walked out of the kitchen holding a tray of tea, stopped hearing Hermione. . He looked at Hermione, then turned to Blaise and Theo. Both men shook their heads at Neville saying that they didn't know what was going on as well.
"Oh, I must have forgotten it at Harry's," Hermione remarked. She placed all her things in her bag, except for a quill and parchment.
"Can I borrow your owl?" she asked turning to Draco. Before Draco could allow her, she already turned away muttering, "Never mind, that'll just wake them."
She had removed her wand from her pocket and was tapping it on her hip when she realized she could cast her Patronus to send a message to the Potters. Hermione murmured the incantation watching as her Patronus came to life.
The otter glided around the room before landing in front of Hermione again. The Patronus got all the men's attention; now all of them were watching her.
"Can you please tell Ginny or Harry to send me Teddy's gift?" Hermione instructed. The otter bobbed its head to the side before flying through the window. After it was gone, Hermione went back to what she was previously doing, which was reading a book.
"What was that?" Blaise asked.
Hermione looked up. "A Patronus," Theo and Blaise looked at each other feeling deflated. None of them had been able to cast a Patronus mostly because none of them thought of casting one. They really didn't have much use for it now anyway.
"Can't anyone of you cast a Patronus?" Hermione asked. None of them answered. It didn't occur to Hermione that they wouldn't be able to cast one just because everyone in the Order was ordered to cast one. It was significant for communication during the war. She realized that they probably had a different way of communicating.
"I can teach you," Hermione said chirpily. She was able to teach Draco anyway, teaching two other Slytherins won't be too bad.
"No offence Granger, but there are more important things to do right now," Draco muttered, hiding a smile. Hermione glared at him but didn't say anything. Instead, she walked back to her room waiting for her package.
The otter arrived at Harry's place a few hours after midnight. It woke Harry and Ginny but Ginny was the only one to get up from the bed. She approached the otter sleepily and listened to the message. Once the message was delivered and the otter disappeared, Ginny turned to Harry, picked up a pillow that fell on the floor, and threw it at her husband.
Harry stood — startled awake.
"What?" Harry asked looking around for the source of the commotion only seeing Ginny standing at the foot of their bed, hands on her hips. Harry looked at her then looked away feeling guilty already without even knowing what he should be guilty of.
"Did you forgot to send Hermione Teddy's gift?" Ginny asked. Harry's face flushed. He scratched the back of his head in apology and smiled shyly at Ginny. Seeing this, Ginny rolled her eyes.
"I can't trust you with the simplest things, Harry Potter," she said walking down towards the living room to get Hermione's gift. Seeing Ginny walk away and having nothing else to do, Harry just went back to sleep.
Ginny, on the other hand, was looking all over her living room. It took a while for her to remember where she put the gift, throwing pillows on the floor and moving the furniture. She didn't even care if it would be too loud to wake her husband. Frustrated, she called on the house elf, Kreacher, and asked if he knew where the gift was. The elf pointed on the top of the fireplace making Ginny just shake her head and sigh.
She took out a parchment which she often used when delivering posts and wrote a note to Hermione and then scribbling Draco Malfoy's address in small font at the bottom of the note. She woke up Hedwig II (which the owl didn't really take kindly on), strapped the gift on his leg and watched him fly away in the night.
Climbing back up the stairs, Ginny grumbled, "Why couldn't Hermione wait until morning?"
The owl came in during the early morning when they were all sleeping. Theo and Blaise, who fell asleep in the living room woke up to the sound of the owl's flapping wings. Neville stayed asleep on the wingback.
Blaise stood up to see what the owl was carrying but it didn't let it go.
"I'm just going to see who it's for," Blaise complained to the bird still trying to see the back of the package to see who it was addressed to.
"Oh blimey! Granger," Blaise shouted. "It's for you," he added.
Hermione had been awake or hadn't been sleeping so when someone called her she immediately walked out of her room.
"The bloody owl is a menace," Blaise said falling back to the sofa to get back his sleep.
Hermione fed Hedwig II a few treats before allowing it to go. She plopped down on an unoccupied seat to see the package. She squealed when she saw it was Teddy's gift. When she opened it, Hermione realized this was the first time she was actually going to see the gift.
Teddy's gift for her was a painting of rain. Hermione assumed that Teddy must have done this when it had been raining for three months. The young boy had a knack of drawing nature — especially whatever he saw outside the window. If the rain was the only thing he had seen then, it wasn't a surprise that it was what he painted. . She smiled at the painting looking at it lovingly already thinking of places where she could put it. She walked towards her room, placing it on top of the bedside table.
As she looked at the painting, she noticed a paper lodged in the bottom right corner of the frame. Hermione carefully extracted it. It was folded in half and when she opened it she recognized Andromeda's handwriting.
"I wish you the birthday, Hermione. I saw in the papers that you were with Draco Malfoy. Take care of that young boy, especially nowadays. He needs someone who remembers him."
Hermione felt her heart skip a beat as she stared at the note and reread it all over again. Andromeda knew who Draco was.
She had known for a while and had been trying to tell Hermione about it. That's what her cryptic message about the peacocks was about. Hermione wanted to curse herself. What did Andromeda know? Why wasn't she affected? Her mind kept running with questions and it made her felt restless. She didn't even care that she didn't have enough sleep. She needed answers and the only place she could them was at Andromeda's place.
Hermione got her bag, shoved a few things inside and then changed. After changing, she was out of her room shouting to whoever would listen in the living room that she needed to go.
Only Blaise heard her.
"Granger where are you going? We're going to Narcissa's today, remember?" Blaise asked. She didn't answer. "Malfoy isn't even up yet," Blaise shouted before hearing the familiar pop of apparition. He sighed and plopped back down on the sofa to resume his sleep.
Andromeda seemed to be expecting Hermione. She stood outside her house when Hermione apparated near her property as if waiting for her.
"I was expecting you to come much earlier," Andromeda said welcoming her. Hermione suddenly felt wary around her but Andromeda didn't seem notice. She walked Hermione towards the living room where Teddy was sleeping at one of the couches. He was still holding one of the paper animals — the raven — that Draco transfigured to move. Hermione noticed one of the wings was folded. She watched the paper raven twitch under Teddy's hand. She wanted to remove it, but she knew that would wake Teddy. That couldn't happen — she needed to talk to Andromeda.
While looking at Teddy, Hermione didn't even notice Andromeda leave then come back until the older witch put a tray of tea in front of Hermione.
"You know who Draco Malfoy is?" Hermione asked as soon as Andromeda sat. The older witch didn't answer right away. Instead, she took her tea from the tray and took a sip.
"Of course I do," Andromeda answered. "He is my nephew," she added. Hermione looked shocked as if she can't believe that Andromeda was confirming something she already knew.
"Well, of course being family doesn't seem to be a factor in that because his own mother doesn't even remember him," Andromeda shook her head and then put down her teacup.
"How?" Hermione asked. Andromeda shrugged as if not knowing, but she knew something — Hermione can tell that the older witch knew something.
"I always told Narcissa that water from the pipes is dirty," Andromeda started. "She kept arguing that the ministry had a way of distilling it anyway to make it clean. She never listens," Andromeda concluded.
"Pipes?" Hermione asked, confused.
"I thought by now you would've found out the cause of this. Isn't that why you're with the young Mr. Malfoy?" Andromeda said.
"We thought it was the rain," Hermione informed the older witch.
"It's impossible to completely saturate rain with potions, Hermione. It would've been too diluted with rainwater. It wouldn't take effect. The pipes though can be completely replaced by potions and no one would know the difference. You should've known that. You've topped your classes," Andromeda discussed as if she was a professor teaching in class. Hermione's head was spinning. She didn't even mind the older witch questioning her intelligence.
It wasn't the rain — all this time she thought it was the rain. What if it wasn't even the same potion? But they have made an antidote already. Hermione stopped. Does it even matter knowing what caused this?
"I have to go," Hermione said planning to inform Draco and the rest immediately about her findings. Andromeda just nodded as if expecting it already. Hermione was just about to put on her scarf but then stopped. "They're at Narcissa's," Hermione started to remember their plan for today to tell Narcissa everything and give her the antidote. Andromeda watched her as she went back to sit down. "Won't it better for Draco to do this alone?" Andromeda said. Technically, Draco wasn't alone but Hermione decided that it was better. With Theo and Blaise there, Draco would be surrounded by the people closest to him. Hermione didn't have a place.
"Do you want more tea?" Andromeda asked. Hermione nodded. Just in time, Teddy woke up and jumped up when he saw her. Sighing, she decided to just play with the younger wizard to pass time.
Blaise insisted for Neville to come with them despite the latter complaining that he wouldn't be needed anyway. Draco though agreed, saying it'll be better for them if there were more people around. Narcissa wasn't exactly the best person to be around when you admit something as big like she apparently has a son. She tended to panic, or overreact, or both.
It was hard for Draco to face his mother with the thought of admitting everything to her.
Narcissa though welcomed the four boys happily, not knowing what was going to happen.
"And who is this?" Narcissa asked looking at Neville.
"Neville Longbottom, he's a friend." Narcissa gulped down, cautious. She nodded at him, "How are your parents?" Theo, Blaise, and Draco looked at Neville curiously.
Neville didn't want to say anything. It was a sore topic — his parents — but Narcissa sounded sincere, and Neville thought that it wouldn't be so bad to talk about it.
"There's progress," he just answered.
"I hope for their recovery." Narcissa smiled.
"So what do I owe the pleasure?"
"There's something you need to know," Draco said. Narcissa looked at everyone curiously but led them towards the sitting room. When they were able to sit down, everyone looked at Draco.
Draco sighed, and started remembering the script Hermione had made for him the day before, "My name is Draco Malfoy." He suddenly said. Narcissa raised a brow at his last name. She was always curious why Draco never mentioned his surname. "How are you related to my husband?" She asked.
"He's my father," Her eyes widened in surprise, and then there was a sort of hurt in them. Draco realized too late what she must have been thinking about.
"I don't mean it like that. I don't mean that I'm his son from another woman…" Narcissa raised her arm to stop Draco from speaking.
"Are you telling me that you're my son, Mr. Malfoy?" She said. Draco nodded, playing with his fingers not knowing where to go from there. "It's a long story," Draco said instead.
Narcissa took a cup of tea, sipped from it then put it back down.
"Tell me this story then,"
The French house was quiet when Hermione got back making her conclude that they were all probably already at the Malfoy Manor. Despite wanting to go follow them, she decided against it and instead went to her flat in London.
When she got there, there was a Daily Prophet copy on her windowsill and a letter. She opened the letter first, putting aside the copy of the Daily Prophet. The letter read:
Dear Ms. Granger,
I hope everything is well with you. I am writing you this to remind you of our little celebration tonight at the headquarters to celebrate the completion of our staff. We hope you can celebrate this with us as a member of our company.
Yours truly, Alana Lee (Secretary, Editor-in-Chief's Office)
She put the letter down as she remembered being told about the party but forgetting that it was today. Having nothing else to do, she decided to go. Besides, it was a good way to pass time as she waited Draco and the rest of the team.
Since the celebration wouldn't be starting until a few hours, Hermione decided to drop by Harry's place.
Harry didn't expect when she arrived. She felt guilty for not informing him but fortunately she didn't walk into anything.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked still clad in his silk robes with his Winnie the Pooh pyjamas underneath. Hermione looked him over and said, instead, "Do you have no plans to change"
Harry shrugged, "I have changed. I don't have work today anyway," He plopped down the living room sofa, and rested his feet on the table. Hermione sat on the armchair and faced him.
"Harry, can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"What do you remember about Blaise and Theo?" Ever since Neville talked about the memories he supposedly remembered, Hermione had been curious what the other people remembered as well. Besides, Harry and Draco had a very constrained relationship. A lot of his memories would've been altered.
"Are you investigating them?" Harry asked suspiciously. Hermione shook her head, "I'm just curious," she said.
Harry shrugged, "Well you might be. I always thought it odd that you suddenly became friends with Slytherins when we never interacted with them anyway," Harry said. He placed his hand on his chin and started remembering Theo and Blaise.
"They were the pranksters of our year. Unoriginal really, though they never got boring," He started talking about the big pranks they did — mirroring what Neville had said. When he finished, he wiped the tears that formed in his eyes remembering a fond memory of the two Slytherin pranksters. Hermione found it hilarious that Theodore Nott changed so much in their memories. She only remembered him as the quiet boy beside Draco and Blaise, tinkering with something in the corner.
"Do you remember the raid of the Death Eaters in Hogwarts?" Hermione then asked. Harry looked at her with thinned eyes, "What raid?"
"When Dumbledore died?" Hermione explained.
"Dumbledore died of a curse when he was destroyed the horcrux, Hermione. In his office during the sixth year. It was the worst time because once we left for the summer, the next thing we knew Hogwarts had been invaded by Death Eaters. Don't you remember?" Harry asked her. Hermione decided not to answer. Harry looked at her curiously, but she continued not to answer. Instead, she asked "Do you remember us being captured in the Malfoy Manor?"
Harry laughed. "We were captured in the Lestrange Manor, as far as I remember. Though I would understand why you'd mix them up. I was told they were very similar." Harry recalled. Hermione nodded.
She decided to change conversation topics 'lest Harry would become suspicious of her. They talked about Ginny and her next Quidditch match until Hermione needed to go.
Harry didn't seem to notice anything wrong.
"Someone had wiped away your memory from the whole of Great Britain?" Narcissa asked for clarification after Draco finished telling his story. She looked at him curiously, then asked, "How do I know you're not lying?"
Draco removed something from the inside of his coat pocket and passed it to Narcissa.
It was a picture of three of them, Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius during their holiday in France, right before the fourth year. Narcissa looked at it, waved her wand around it, uttering a spell. The four men waited. After a while, a blue light surrounded the photo. "It's authentic," she whispered when she was finished with her spell. Narcissa held a sob. "I have a copy of this," she started, "Only without you in it." She stared lovingly at the picture. "I remember Lucius and I had a holiday — resigned that we would never have children."
A tear fell from her eyes as she looked at the photo again. She looked at how happy she was with her arms around Draco that she didn't remember was her son.
She breathed in, trying to calm herself down. "I'm sorry, I don't remember you," Narcissa choked on her tears. Draco walked towards her and placed a comforting hand on hers. "It's not your fault," He assured.
"What can we do?" She asked.
Theo leaned forward, removing the box of vials from his bag. "These are antidotes," he said. Narcissa eyed him. "We brewed and tested it ourselves. It's completely safe," Narcissa nodded.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"You drink one vial a day. You can mix it with your food. It won't affect the flavour," Theo instructed. Narcissa took the potions, called the elves, and told them to keep them somewhere safe. She also instructed them to make sure she would drink it once every day. After the elves left, Narcissa turned to Draco.
"Now tell me about yourself."
Hermione walked into the headquarters, and walked towards one of the meeting rooms already smelling the fire whiskey in the air. Songs she didn't recognize were playing from a gramophone at the corner. She spotted Cho almost immediately only because the latter started waving at her. "I thought you wouldn't be able to make it," Cho said while she walked towards her.
"I almost didn't," Hermione admitted. They walked towards where the others were. Hermione looked around and saw Pansy at the refreshment table, levitating a few drinks towards where they were.
She placed all the drinks on the table beside them and passed it to everyone around, stopping in front of Hermione, "I didn't know you'd be here, Granger." Pansy said. "Should I go to get you a drink?" she asked. Hermione smiled but shook her head, "I can get a drink on my own, thank you very much."
With this, Hermione walked to the refreshment table to get herself a drink. She didn't want to doubt Pansy especially since Hermione notice the latter trying so hard to become friends with her. It was also hard to doubt Pansy and her intentions. So far, Hermione had never found any evidence to assume she was behind all of this. Her only evidence was Draco's name on a piece of paper and that wasn't enough to hold her accountable. Nevertheless, it was better to be safe.
Hermione decided to pour her own drinks from then on.
Narcissa found herself laughing when Blaise finished telling a story about him and Draco during the first time Blaise visited Draco in the Manor. "He was such a tiny thing back then," Blaise uttered.
Draco rolled his eyes, telling Blaise that he was smaller than Draco when they were children but Blaise tutted — unbothered. . It was rather amusing how Narcissa found everything hilarious but not remember anything that happened. When Draco zoned back into the conversation, Theo was already telling a tale during their third year when Hermione punched Draco.
"That must have hurt," Neville said. Narcissa looked at him. "You don't remember either?" she asked. Neville shook his head. Narcissa smiled as if finding companionship in Neville. "Let's enjoy these stories together then," she said. She looked at Theo to continue, "Where is Ms. Granger?" She suddenly asked.
"She needed to go somewhere. I'm sure it was important," Draco answered.
"I'm not used to not seeing the two of you together — I had to ask. Were you close to each other back in school?" She asked. Blaise snickered.
"They were anything but. He hated her," Blaise mentioned.
"I don't hate her," Draco corrected, "But you did?" Theo prodded. Draco sighed and looked out of the window as if remembering something, "She basically was everything I was taught to hate. A muggle-born who excelled in magic was the opposite of everything I had learned from my father I grew up believing that they shouldn't know these things yet here she was, outsmarting everyone." Draco started explaining.
Narcissa listened and watched Draco carefully wondering how they actually raised him. Somehow she understood where his reservations on Muggleborns were coming from. Being part of the Black family, she had beliefs that when she started growing up she realized wasn't the best beliefs she could have, and being married to a Malfoy didn't do anything to better them.
Looking at how Draco had managed to befriend a muggle-born though, she was glad that her son had been able to create ideals of his own. Well, at least she hoped,
"I was annoyed, extremely. It doesn't help that she's friends with Potter too. But I don't think I hated her," Draco had a distant look in his eyes — remembering something or someone. Blaise and Theo looked at him knowingly.
"You work well together. That's unfortunate you weren't friends," Narcissa said picking up her teacup. She looked at Draco who seemed to be deep in thought. To stir the conversation away from him, Narcissa said, "It's getting late and I'm rather hungry. Do you boys want to eat?"
Hermione had one drink the whole night. She didn't accept drinks from anyone throughout the duration of the celebration. It was one thing to be suspicious, but she needed to be careful. The whole night, she was also creating walls in her mind, just in case someone was reading. Draco had taught her to know when someone was in her mind. Using what she was taught, she hadn't detected anyone yet. Still, she couldn't be too sure.
"Who knew the Daily Prophet could hold a party, huh?" Cho said sitting beside her. "Do you want a drink? I noticed your glass is empty." Cho added.
Hermione shook his head, "I'm fine,"
"Are you pregnant?" Hermione choked. "No."
"I just assumed because you haven't been drinking."
"I did drink one glass," Hermione said showing her glass. Cho laughed,"Of course."
The party finished smoothly, Hermione keeping her promise herself not to take any drinks from anyone. She had another drink on her own before the party ended.
Being too tired, Hermione decided to stay at her flat for the night, just planning to go back to Draco's in the morning.
After a tiring day, she had finally fallen asleep.
A/N
I'm sorry for the lack of updates. First of all, I've got a very bad review in one of my works (not this) and that really put me in a slump. Second, we've literally had three typhoons in the past two weeks and two of them were super typhoons. I've been working with two organizations I'm a member of with donation drives and relief operations for the provinces affected by the typhoon/s. Lastly, half of the staff in our volunteer work quit on us unexpectedly and now the ones left are just trying so hard to pick up the pieces.
I'm just so drained, emotionally and physically.
This isn't heavily edited because of the busyness but I'll definitely go back and edit it when my schedule loosens up a bit.
I hope it's not a bad read. I've been learning the English grammar recently, so I hope this chapter isn't too bad.
Enjoy :)