Chapter 55
Draco closed the newspaper he'd pretended to be reading and stood from his chair when Hermione traveled through his floo."Sweetheart, what a pleasant surprise", he said pulling her into his arms. "How did it go?"
Blaise came through the floo after her, but a short nod aside, Draco didn't seem surprised to see him.
Odd...
"It was a nightmare", she sighed, "He had a solicitor and is clearly going to fight this every step of the way."
He hugged her a little tighter, watching Blaise pour them all some firewhisky.
"I told you you would need a solicitor", Blaise pointed out. "I can't say many positive things about your husband, but it's quite remarkable how he can be so dim and so strategically gifted at the same time."
"He's not dim", she corrected him, "He just has a very tiny empathetic ability."
"Anyone who treats their wife the way he treats you is dim", Draco snubbed, handing her a drink.
"He was quite rude too, him and his solicitor both", Blaise said, emptying his glass before pouring himself another. " Really mate, I thought you would come barging in when..."
Her head snapped up to look at Draco, catching him glaring at his friend who'd obviously said too much.
"What", she snapped, stepping out of his embrace.
"What?", Blaise echoed, putting his glass down on the table.
She rolled her eyes and turned to Draco.
"What did you do", she asked angrily.
"What I had to", he said petulantly, crossing his arms.
"You spied on my divorce meeting", she accused him, seeing his mirror peeking out of his pocket and connecting the dots.
The meeting had been held at the ministry for a reason.
"I told you before and I'll tell you again", he answered, not backing down, "I protect what is mine."
"Yeah", Blaise said, backing away from them towards the floo, "I think I'm going to..."
"Don't you dare", Draco growled.
"I don't think so", Hermione shouted at the same time.
Both of them sent a hex his way at the same time, rendering him mute and stuck to the high chair behind him.
"As for YOU...", she hissed, poking his chest as she faced Draco again.
"Me?", he scoffed, capturing her hands so she would quit poking him. "You were the one who..."
They continued to squabble, neither of them wanting to give in. Their noses were so close together they almost touched.
Hermione yelped in surprise as something cold touched her face and Draco would have done the same if he hadn't been trained not to respond to such things his whole life.
Both of them took a step away from eachother to look puzzled at the tumbler of whiskey floating by.
They looked at Blaise, who was looking at the tumbler very concentrated, clearly muttering a spell even though they couldn't hear him.
Very slowly the tumbler floated towards his hand.
"At what point will he realise that his arm is stuck to the chair, so he won't be able to drink it?", she whispered.
"Let's wait and see", he chuckled, pulling her to him.
They forgot about their argument for a moment, watching how their friend finally caught his tumbler. Before he could do anything else, Narcissa glided into the room.
"Draco dear", she said, nodding in greeting at her, "Miss Parkinson is here to see you."
"I...", he started, but his mother raised her hand to stop him.
"I know you don't want to speak to her, but she is being rather persistent", she said icily. "If I have to politely tell her to leave one more time, I'm afraid that a horrible accident might happen. It will probably involve a flight of stairs or maybe a murderous peacock, you know they can be rather aggressive when provoked..."
"Alright, we don't want that", he sighed, "Salazar knows she might return as a ghost to stay here forever. Have Madgy send her in."
His mother gave him a hint of a smile and left, glad to be rid of the woman.
"Dracooo!", Pansy cooed, waltzing right by Hermione to throw her arms around his neck, efficiently pulling him down a little bit to place two kisses on his cheeks.
"Pansy", he greeted politely, taking her hands from his neck to give them a barely touching kiss and holding them, keeping her at a distance just as efficiently. "I'm afraid I don't have much time today, I..."
"You never have time for me,", she pouted, "You're always working and..."
Finally she spotted Hermione and narrowed her eyes at her, pulling her hands from Draco's.
"What's SHE doing here?", she screeched, making Hermione wince a little.
"She's visiting", he answered with a frown, "She just arrived a few minutes ago with Blaise."
Only now did she seem to notice him. The witch really wasn't that observant. Or maybe it was just the obsession taking over.
"Well, you're awfully quiet", she addressed Blaise, "Embarrassed to be seen with the ugly Mudblood?"
Draco hissed angrily, but before he could say anything, Lucius entered the room and Pansy paled slightly from the look on his face.
"Madam Minister", he said, "Apologies for the wait."
Taking the hint, she walked over to him and through the door he was holding open.
"Draco, please show Madam... Well I'm not sure who she is, but show her out", he said casually. "We have seen enough of her type in this house to last us a lifetime."
He followed Hermione out and turned on the doorstep to address Pansy.
"Do us all a favour", he said with a face like iron, "Don't bother to return here. Ever."
She could see Pansy's face turn bright red, right before Lucius closed the door behind them and snickered.
"Thank you Lucius", she smirked, "That was quite a fun show."
"And I meant every word of it", he smiled, taking her arm and gallantly leaded her to the little library.
Narcissa sat in the small salon, reading her latest muggle book. Sweet Persuasion by Maya Banks, she saw, well it seemed like Narcissa was taking it up a notch after Fifty Shades of Grey...
"Is she gone?", she asked, barely looking up from her book. She was twirling a dagger between her fingers though. The sight gave her chills. What was it with the Black sisters and their cursed daggers?
"Yes", her husband answered. "And I don't think she'll be back soon. Not if she knows what's good for her."
"I'm not sure she has the sense nor sanity to stay away, but we'll see I suppose", she commented, closing her book and putting the dagger in-between the pages as a morbid bookmark. "Did Blaise leave with her?"
"I doubt it", she answered, sitting down in a comfortable dark plush chair. "I suppose he's a little bit... Tied up at the moment."
Madgy appeared with some tea in beautiful green porcelain teapot with matching cups and biscuits on a silver platter.
"Thank you Madgy", Narcissa said politely, "Can you please tell my son where we are and bring Blaise here as well?"
"Sure Madam", the house elf responded and dissaparated with a snap.
A few seconds later Blaise appeared, still tied to the chair, mute and with his drink in his hand. Narcissa cocked her eyebrow, but didn't respond. Lucius was not fased, like this happened every other day.
"Well, I suppose I should wait for Draco", she said, putting her tea down, "But I should ask you first anyway. You know, as head of the family."
Draco's parents looked at eachother, seemingly corresponding with their eyes.
"Don't you think that this is a little soon?", Narcissa asked carefully. "You're not divorced yet."
"Well, my divorce is the main reason to ask this now...", she said confused. She hadn't even asked yet?
"I understand", Lucius said slowly, "But... Are you sure that you want to marry him?"