CHAPTER 1

After all the bizarre thing she had experienced at war, she felt that anything could surprise her anymore…or that was she thought before she got up and decided to come down from her bedroom to read one of her favorite books in hers and the Head Boy´s common room, and the most pompous and regal eagle owl she had ever seen began to desperately peck at her window, with an invitation that would change her life and many more.

Hermione sighed and rose delicately from his comfortable armchair to open the window to the bird. It entered with all the grace that its appearance made noticeable and placed itself on the back of the desk chair that was in the room. She approached it, picked up the envelope that was tied to the owl's claw and offered her hand to caress the animal. It let her stroke it´s head for a few minutes and then headed back to the window to make his way out.

She looked down at the silver envelope in her hands, admiring the soft, smooth texture of it, turned it over and frowned a little, as she did not recognize the fine calligraphy in which her name was written. Curious, she opened it and pulled out the paper, noticing that a small letter was attached. As he read the content, of what she now knew was an invitation, her eyes opened slightly in surprise. Well, it was nothing more and nothing less than an invitation to a ball hosted by Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy.

Dear Miss Granger,

We cordially invite you to the ball in honor of the

revolutionary changes that the Magic World will see in the

next few months. We want, as a family of the wizarding aristocratic society

to give our support to these motions by celebrating the differences between

heritages of the witches and wizards of our community.

Dress code: Formal/Black Tie

Date: October the 3rd

Malfoy Family

Hermione touched her forehead just to assure herself that she wasn´t feverish and hallucinating. Yep, cool as a cucumber.

-That´s it I´ve finally gone mental.

Flabbergasted and confused beyond belief she opened the second letter, because there was no way in Hell the contents of these one could be more shocking. Oh how wrong she was.

She quickly scanned the contents of it, and proceed to re-read it four times more. Because again, there was no way in Hell Narcissa Malfoy just sent her a personal letter, especially with the words written on it.

Dear Miss Granger,

I hope this letter founds you well. I´ve been meaning to write you to offer you my most sincere gratefulness for your crucial paper in the absolution of my family's sins, especially the ones from my beloved husband, in front of the Wizengamot. I truly believe that without your willingness to spoke in our defense, the Malfoy family would have been severely tarnished and destroyed. Your open mind and empathy to our situation made think about how the old ways need to be put behind us, believe when I tell you that on my part, blood prejudice is no longer part of my core values, maybe it never was. I will be delighted if you decided to attend the ball and give a speech in front of the pureblood families, regarding the changes that wizarding society is going thru. If you decide to not attend, I will completely understand, you´ve suffered terrible things under our roof and my dear husband and son are still being the proud and arrogant men they were raised to be, but I hope that with your influence and your words, you may be able to make them move on of their prejudices. Please feel free to owl me with your answer.

Narcissa Black Malfoy

Hermione started giggling, it was just so bizarre. She couldn´t control her reaction, her giggles turned into full blown laughter. Unfortunately for her, these is how her fellow Head, Draco Malfoy, found her.

He frowned at the blatant display of insanity and proceed to make a disgusted grimace.

-Granger, could you please take banshee laughter out of the common room? It´s annoying.

She stopped for a second to frown at him and then proceed to started laughing again while showing him the invitation.

-It´s just…that I think…someone is…pranking us…it´s just so out of character-she said, breathlessly, in between laughter.

He sneered and ripped the invitation out of her hand. Being mindful of not touching her, he understood that he owed her a life debt, but still she wasn´t a person he totally liked. He could appreciate her intelligence, but all the rest of her was annoying.

He read the contents of the paper again and again, because it was impossible his mother and his father were willingly hosting a ball mixing purebloods with Mud…Muggleborns (He was always apprehensive of using that word these days, especially after seeing her being tortured on the floor of his parlor). There was just no way they were going to host these shitshow, but there was also the fact that he was furious with the reaction of Granger. She should be able to tell that people with the manners and education of a member of the Sacred 28, would never lower themselves to prank about these. He was becoming increasingly irate with her blatant disrespect to the honor his family was bestowing on her by inviting her to a ball.

-You know swot, you should be honored to have received these invitation- he started angrily-But I get it a no one of a lowly upbringing, just like you, will never understand. - he was clenching his jaw so much it was painful. -I bet you are just so uneducated and manner less, you are embarrassed to attend.

That sobered her up. She put a mask of trained indifference. And slowly turned her head in his direction. Narcissa´s letter clutched in her hand. Her anger was palpable. On the inside, she felt her anger in her stomach trying to claw out of her in a form of right hook to his annoyingly perfect nose. But on the outside her anger was camouflaged with a stoic face and proud posture. Ohhh, she was totally going to destroy him.

-You know, after experiencing a war, being host to the cruelest man to ever existed, and fearing for the wellbeing of your family, being forced to do thing you were entirely comfortable with-she paused to take a deep breath- you are still so focused in the heritage and upbringing of a person. Completely disregarding the feelings of others an being a complete arsehole. I honestly am disappointed in you. I spoke in your behalf because I thought you had the potential to become a great asset to the wizarding world, because I thought you had the means to change what was wrong with this society, because I saw empathy and desperation and pain in your eyes while I was in the floor of your manor. Because I understood the high expectations that were put over your shoulders, the influence that family history can have on your judgement, even though you were a prat to me all of these years…I guess I was wrong. -she finished with a polite and cold smile.

Draco felt his eyes open in shock. He quickly pulled up his occlumency shields. Gods forbid she figure out that her words rattle him. He felt anger, sadness, guilt and worse of all shame. Deep down he felt happiness, because honestly no one has ever put that amount of faith in him, and sadly he had already fucked up the expectations of that person, as always. He felt the guilt choking him, because not only did she believe he had the potential to be a good person, she had enough kindness and empathy in her heart to speak in defense of a family of Death Eaters, a title that is against all of what she represents. But he also felt extremely confused, she spoke as if she understood the expectations of a member of an aristocratic family, and that was impossible.

She watched intensely for a few seconds waiting for a reply of a reaction, just to be disappointed with his lack of either. But also, kind of relieved, because in her anger, she made implications that could have had given her secret away… a secret she has been hiding since her first year at Hogwarts.

She sighed and strode gracefully, with her head held high, across the common room to get to the stairs of her room. She put her hand on the railing and softly whispered-Malfoy, you don´t know anything about me.

She quickly went upstairs to her room and softly closed the door. And slide down against it. She was shaking a little bit. He will never know, but she understood better than anyone what a need to please your family and fulfill your centuries old traditions could lead you to do, specially if their lives depend on it, those were the reasons that lead her to defend Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy in front of the Wizengamont…Afterall, she is also part from a noble family, a Muggle noble family.