Chapter 16: Wine Dine
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Hermione arrived at the Manor Saturday evening and was greeted by Draco at the gates. They walked into the Entrance Hall and she started for the den, but he grabbed her hand, "Dinner will be in the private dining room tonight," he pulled her through a different door and down a hall she hadn't seen before. They emerged in a candlelit room with a significantly smaller table in it than the main dining room. This one couldn't fit more than four people. It was covered with a fancy ivory tablecloth, set with fine china for two. The ceiling reflected the night's sky, moon beaming from the corner of the room.
Hermione took in the setting, "You are full of surprises, Malfoy."
"Well I've had a long time to spend alone in the Manor," he reminded her, "I've acquired some skills while I've been here."
Draco pulled out her chair for her and she sat, "I feel sorely underdressed for the occasion," she remarked.
"And still the most stunning thing in the room," he said in her ear, pushing her chair in from behind.
"Now I feel like you're trying to butter me up," she looked at him suspiciously.
"I just thought you deserved something for all of your hard work," he said smoothly, pouring her a glass of wine and handing it to her.
"I feel like we're not getting much work done tonight," she laughed, his suave demeanor relaxing her. He was quite entertaining when he wanted to be.
"No, I honestly just wanted a reason for you to come over for dinner. But I promise we can work tomorrow," he said, taking a sip from his own glass and sitting in the seat next to her, "Now I'd like you to remember that even though Marty will be delivering the food, I spent the afternoon slaving away preparing our meal in the kitchens."
"I'm not sure if you're being serious or not," she swished the wine around in her glass.
"I'm being quite serious. Marty didn't have to lift a finger."
On cue, Marty appeared in the doorway with a silver tray.
"First course, Master Draco!" She pipped, setting a board of different cheeses, meats and crackers for each of them down on the table and scooting back out the door to the kitchens.
"I hope you like the assortment I chose, I picked them out from the local cheese shop in Diagon Alley and accompanied each with a spread, cracker and fresh cut charcuterie."
She shook her head, his confidence felt endearing again, "We really do come from different worlds, you and I."
They ate and chatted, Hermione telling Draco stories of her family dinners growing up, about her mother's 'famous 20 minute meals', how she would tell them about school and about the weird things that seemed to happen around her before she knew she was a witch, and how her father would fall asleep in the armchair by the end of the night watching the television (which she also explained). Marty brought out new courses as soon as they had finished the last.
"Ah the main entree!" Draco said as Marty brought in course number four, "It's grilled salmon with a jalapeno apricot glaze," he lifted a piece from the serving dish onto each of their plates, and scooped the side for her, "Pairs beautifully with a jasmine rice. I had the salmon flown in from the coast, got in this morning. Wanted to make sure it was fresh."
She took a bite, it was spicy and sweet with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, "Well if it makes it taste like this, I'll fly my fish in every day. Where on earth did you learn to cook like this?"
"Marty taught me a lot of it over the last couple of years," he shrugged, "I got bored around the Manor sometimes, feeling like I was cooped up here, so I had her teach me my favorite dishes that she made so that one day I could impress someone with them."
"I owe Marty a big thank you then," she said, taking another bite, "Were you close with Dobby when he lived here?"
"Honestly I wasn't," he told her, "He was my father's house elf, stuck by his side and did his bidding. He wasn't very nice to Dobby so I just stayed out of it. Marty was my house elf, I probably wasn't the nicest to her growing up, but I was never mean like my father was to Dobby. Father still doesn't really see house elves as anything but servants, but like I've mentioned, all this time at the Manor, you need someone to talk to sometimes and Marty has been good to me," he paused, "I'm sorry for what happened to Dobby."
"I am too," Hermione gave him a sad smile, "He was a good soul. He saved our lives though, we'll always remember him for that." There was an awkward silence at the mention of what happened at the Manor three year ago and Hermione cleared her throat, "Would you ever consider setting Marty free?"
"Why would I ever do that?" He furrowed his brows at her, ready to move past the Dobby discussion, "She's a wonderful house elf and my only housemate that's not my parents or the other house elves that tend to my parents now."
"Well, have you ever considered that maybe house elves want to be free? Like any other creature?"
Draco chuckled, "You can ask her yourself, Granger."
They had finished the main entree and Marty had come back in with fresh garden salad for each of them.
"Marty, have you ever thought about being a free elf?" Hermione asked her, taking a bite of her salad.
"Did Marty do something wrong?" She looked between Hermione and Draco, ears falling back with worry.
"Not at all Marty, you've done a wonderful job, I was just wondering if you'd ever considered it. Being free, working for pay, living your life?"
"No, ma'am," she shook her head, "Marty is very happy in Malfoy Manor. Draco has been a wonderful master. Marty and Master Draco cook food together and Marty watches Master Draco play Quidditch in the yard. Marty loves her family and she doesn't want to leave, not when they need her most now, when everyone is saying horrible lies about them. Marty will stay by their side, through and through."
Hermione looked up, Draco looked quite satisfied, "Alright, Marty, I just wanted to hear your thoughts. I'm glad you're happy here."
"Yes, ma'am! Marty will go bring the last course around!"
"If you try to slip a sock to this one, she'll be traumatized," Draco said, "I told you, I treat her good."
Hermione sighed, "Yes, I know, I've just always advocated for House Elf rights, I think they deserve to be free and paid for their hard work."
"Very valiant of you," Draco grinned, "How was the salad? Not the most impressive dish but you've got to have a palate cleanser before dessert."
"Everything is delicious," she said with a broad smile, "You've really gone to a lot of trouble tonight. Can I ask how you kept the food warm if you made it before I came?"
"It's a wonderful little charm I found in a book called The Magic Of Cooking. Lots of tips and tricks for hosting parties and cooking large portions and keeping it warm throughout the night, that kind of thing."
"You're very well read, aren't you, you've got a book for everything," it was one of the many reasons she was so drawn to him.
"I feel I could easily say the same for you," he quipped.
Marty brought out the last course, a creme brûlée with fresh cut berries on top.
"Now you're just showing off," she said, trying to downplay her excitement.
Marty came and cleared the table as they finished and they were left with the last few drops of their bottle of wine.
"So where in the world will you visit next?" Draco asked, topping off her glass.
"Well I'm actually going to go to Australia in a couple of weeks," she said, remembering she had done as promised and gone home Friday night to set up a Portkey to visit her parents.
"What's in Australia?" He asked.
"My parents are there for a few months."
"Do they go often?"
"Only recently," she said, realizing Draco didn't know her story from the war, "You see, after our sixth year, I knew I'd be going off with Harry and Ron to help piece together how to defeat Voldemort and I thought there was a good chance either I would die, or someone would go looking for our families for information and I didn't want them being caught up in a war that wasn't theirs," she gave him a bit of a guilty look, "I erased their memories before I left that summer. I deleted myself from every picture and every memory they had so they no longer had a daughter and I sent them to live in Australia."
Draco didn't know what to say, he'd never imagined some of the things the other side had to do to protect the ones they loved during the war.
"I found them, of course, after Voldemort was defeated. Ron came with me to look for them and we found them in Sydney and restored their memories."
"That's some powerful magic," he finally said, trying to ignore that Ron was there for her in one of the most paramount moments in her life.
"It was," she said with a half smile, "I'm just glad it worked. But anyway, now they love Australia and have a second house there. I haven't seen them in almost a year so I wanted to go spend a weekend with them."
"That sounds lovely," he said, "You'll have to leave me some research projects when you go so your work is still getting done. Then you won't have to worry about it."
Hermione looked down at her glass, taking a deep breath, "I was thinking you might come with me."
"To Australia?" He asked.
"Well, I know you enjoy your travels like I do and I don't see my parents often so I guess if you're ever going to, you know, meet them, maybe this would be a good opportunity."
Draco just stared at her, deep in thought.
"I mean you can think about it, don't feel obligated," she said, "I just thought it might be something fun, away from here."
"But what will your parents think of you bringing… a Malfoy with you? Won't they be worried for you, upset that you're with me?"
Hermione gave a dry laugh, "Malfoy, they know nothing about you. I've probably complained about you a few times in the summers, but they aren't a part of the wizarding world and they don't really know the drama that goes on in this world. They would treat you with as much respect as I do. They'd probably just be happy I was bringing a boy with me at all. They think I'm married to my work."
"You are," he said, half-jokingly, "I'll think about it. It's not that I wouldn't like to come, it's just that I'm still uncomfortable with you allowing yourself to be with me… when there aren't any expectations it doesn't bother me as much but meeting your parents feels like you've made a decision that you're okay with more than that and I don't feel I deserve it."
"You're being hard on yourself again. We've talked about this, we've fought about it, we've made up about it, I did make my decision, Malfoy. And it is just a 'we'll see where this goes' scenario, but my decision was that I put everything else in the past because I believe in who you are now," she paused, "Just think about it. I think it would be fun to explore Australia with you."
He nodded, draining the rest of his glass of wine.
"Dinner was remarkable," she changed the subject, finishing her glass as well.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," his lip curled up, trying to release the tension from their conversation again, "How about I give you a tour of the Manor, you've really only seen the den. The garden out back is almost more magical at night."
"This feels like a real date, you know," Hermione took the hand he had held out and stood up with him.
"Well then first thing's first," he said, walking over to the wine cabinet on the back wall and pulling out a few different bottles before settling on one, "More wine."
O-o-o-o-o-o-o