I'm just going to throw out this chapter after 2 years and cover my head. For any readers still around after all this time, my most humble apologies and profound thanks.
Golden Opportunities
Part 5
Mrs. Greengrass pushed past her husband to be the first inside the front door of Malfoy Manor. She rushed over to the lady of the house and draped an overly familiar arm through the crook of Narcissa's elbow. Mr. Greengrass followed behind his wife, shaking Lucius' hand before turning to lead his daughter into the expansive marble foyer.
"I was delighted to receive your dinner invitation, Narcissa. Astoria has been so longing to see her dear fiancé. You know, she misses him terribly with the boy being so busy with his work." Mrs. Greengrass made a show of looking around the room, "Well, where is Draco?"
Narcissa detangled herself from the woman's grip and waved a well-manicured hand in the air dismissably, "Draco is finishing up some research in the library. As a matter of fact," she paused and turned to the pale blond semi hidden behind Mr. Greengrass, "Astoria, could you let him know that dinner will be served in about a quarter of an hour? Thank you, dearest."
The quiet young woman nodded and hurried off down the hall without a word. Her mother sent a quick side glare at Narcissa, mumbling under her breath about her daughter being 'sent out like a house elf'.
Lucius clapped his hands together, effectively getting the remaining Greengrasses' attention and causing them both to jump slightly.
"Well, we have much to discuss regarding the nuptials of the children. Before we can settle down to dinner, I must insist that you accompany my wife and I to my study." He stiffened with a little bow and held out an arm to indicate the direction. "After you," he ground out sharply.
Mr. And Mrs. Greengrass eyed Lucius wearily before sharing a look of mutual panic. Then, with a small cough to clear his throat, Mr. Greengrass inquired, "Is there a problem?"
"I would prefer to discuss this in private," Lucius bit out. He then took his wife's arm and walked away in the direction of his study, not looking back to see if the other couple was following.
How could they dare not?
Astoria knew the way to the Malfoy Library without needing the aid of a friendly house elf. She had been to that room many times. It was Draco's preferred place to have their weekly visits, even though, they really didn't 'visit' much during those times. Mostly, she would sit silently looking out the window at the beautiful garden beyond while Draco would walk around the room, stopping occasionally to run his fingertip down the spine of book with a pensive look upon his face.
Many times, she had wanted to strike up a conversation. A real conversation that didn't include the empty platitudes or impersonal inquires they earlier interactions had been composed off. She wanted to really get to know him, maybe even become his friend, but it was just impossible. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, guilt and shame rose up to suffocate the words before they left her lips.
'Coward!' She cursed to herself. 'What my parents are trying to do is wrong and I am too much of coward to put a stop to it!'
The doors to the library were open when she got there. Astoria peeked into the room from the doorway, glancing around until she caught sight of Draco seated by the fireplace and studying a leather-bound tome situated in his lap. His focus was so intense, he did not sense her presence, so she took the time to just observe him.
Her first thought was that he seemed ruffled and a bit messy in his appearance. His hair was longer than he had kept it in school and had a slightly wild look to it. The top several buttons on his wrinkled shirt were undone and he was not even wearing his suit jacket. It was discarded half on and half off a nearby end table.
All of these things Astoria could dismiss as overwork, but looking closer, she could see the wrinkles of stress across his brow, the dark circles under his eyes, and the unhappy downturn twist of his lips.
It was obvious to anyone seeing him in this state, open and vulnerable while he thought he was unobserved, and not know for definite that Draco Malfoy was miserable.
Suddenly, with a disgusted cry, he threw the book away from him. It landed with a loud thump that caused Astoria to give out a startled squeak. Immediately, Draco jumped to his feet, his cool autocratic mask firmly in place.
"Astoria, my apologies, I didn't hear you come in." He looked around for a minute, searching for something to say. "Um, how are your parents? They are here, I presume."
"Yes, I believe they are meeting with your parents before dinner, which your mother would have me inform you is in fifteen minutes."
Draco nodded, "Right, well, I guess we should join them in the dining room then." He made to leave the library, stepping around her to head out the door, but her timid voice stopped him.
"Draco, wait." Astoria dropped her gaze from his confused express to the floor. Shame threatened to silence her, but the need to remove the weight of her guilt gave her the courage she needed to get through this. She stiffened her spine and raised her eyes back to his face. "I need to talk to you about something important."
Mrs. Greengrass's mouth hung open, flapping occasionally in the attempt to speak but only guttural noise came out. A crumpled letter was clutched in her cubby fingers. Her husband just sat hunched over, head bowed in mortification.
"Where, where did you get this...this awful slander against my daughter!?" she finally managed to squeak out.
Lucius leaned back in his desk chair, a look of distain on his face, "Are you denying the accuracy of the report by the best mediwitch in Wizarding Britian?"
"The best? Ha ha ha, surely not THE best. Maybe...a second opinion?"
"Madam!" Lucius roared suddenly, causing Mrs. Greengrass to shut her mouth with a surprised click. "You thought you could put your greed and social climbing above the continuation of my FAMILY LINE!"
Mrs. Greengrass squirmed under the intensity of Lord Malfoy's ire. "It has never been conclusively proven that Astoria can never have children. The doctors just said 'unlikely', they didn't say impossible."
Narcissa hissed at the woman's excuses and marched over to stand behind her husband's chair, resting a hand on his shoulder to show their solidarity. The two Malfoys wore matching looks of contempt and anger.
Mr. Greengrass stood abruptly, grabbed his wife's elbow in a tight grip to end her groveling barrage of excuses, "Please forgive my wife and I. Our enthusiasm for this match overrode our common decency and sense. We will immediately dissolve the engagement contract and release a statement absolving the Malfoy Family from fault." He looked down at his distraught wife, "Come Dear, let's not waste anymore of the Malfoy's time."
He dragged his now sobbing wife out of the study without a backwards glance. Her loud wails echoed down the hall until after a few minutes quiet fell on the house once more.
Lucius let out an exasperated sigh and slumped over, lightly pounding his forehead on the dark wood of his desk. Narcissa circled around him, kneeling on the floor by his chair and rubbing a soothing pattern on his thigh.
"Don't worry, Darling. Crisis averted." She reassured him.
"Crisis...HA! More like cataclysm averted!" He sat up and laid a hand upon her cheek. "If not for your excellent intuition, my love, our family would have been lost. Our proud line ended. We would have never, ", his throat closed with emotion, "never held a grandchild."
Narcissa looked down, tears filling her eyes. Family had always been important to her and Lucius both and only being able to have one child had been a painful reality for them. The thought of grandchildren had been a secret dream that they only talked about when they were curled up in bed, contemplating the future.
Her anger flamed up again at the realization of how close a social-climbing bitch had come to devastating the two men most dear to her. Narcissa fought down the bile in her throat.
"I will have to start looking for Draco a new bride and you can believe I will be vetting this one a lot more thoroughly."
Narcissa had a moment of panic. She had to look into this situation with the Granger girl more before Lucius had Draco wrapped up in another engagement. Then an idea came to her.
"Darling, it might not look good to the other families if we jump immediately into another arrangement right away. Perhaps we should wait, say, six months or so until things settle down."
"You are probably right, my dear," Lucius agreed, reluctantly. "We could send him on an extended trip, to sow some wild oats and all of that."
"A trip would be nice for Draco, I'm sure." Narcissa conceded, "Or maybe he needs a fun project. Something he enjoys, like, oh I know, you could let him take over the Hogwarts Quidditch Program."
Lucius pouted his lips. HE enjoyed that particular program as well, but his son's happiness was more important. "I guess I could turn control over to Draco. He would enjoy the distraction from all this unpleasantness, and he could take a break from his other work for a while."
Narcissa smiled lovingly at her husband. This was all turning out better than she thought it might go. She placed a passionate kiss on his lips to show her approval and slipped out with the excuse of checking on dinner. Once she was far enough away from the study, she called to her house elf, Pip. There were things to do and Narcissa needed the crafty quiet being's help.
When asked later about her first day, Hermione could only say, it could have gone worse. The Durmstrang Headmistress had shown her around before, including where her classroom was located. Viktor helped her prepare the room before term started, which included a good cleaning, carrying many strange muggle items, and being Hermione's first 'student' by listening to her lessons so she could rehearse them.
The first Muggle Studies class was a small one, mostly consisting of upper classmen who wanted it on their records to open up new job opportunities in the changing climate of the Wizarding World. Tory was also in the class and had talked two of her friends into joining as well. Bringing the total of students to fifteen.
While all of her students were respectful, Hermione couldn't help but notice that some of the older ones were standoffish and openly distrustful of her at first. To attempt to open a dialog, she spent the first several classes just answering any and all of the questions her students could think to ask.
They first asked about the war, which was not surprising, but slowly they began to ask more about the world Hermione had come from. The more they knew, the more they engaged with the lessons. As the weeks passed, the looks of suspicion and distrust became looks of interest and understanding.
Viktor was a constant presence, especially once Quidditch season began. As one of the team coaches, he was there to oversee tryouts and the first practices. Just like at Hogwart's, Durmstrang loved their Quidditch and everyone looked forward to battling for supremacy and bragging rights against the rival schools' teams.
Hermione's life settled into a comfortable routine and she had peace in her heart. Teaching had proven to be a worthy challenge for her, with lots of rewards. It lifted her spirit to be informing young minds and gave her purpose. Viktor was a constant source of comfort and companionship that Hermione didn't think she would have survived the last several months without.
He showed at the end of class like he did every day he was in town, bearing some sweet treat or snack he thought 'Junior might like'. As they walked the halls toward the Floo, Hermione happily devoured the pastry she had been gifted with. Viktor was chattering away about the first game, going over which students would be playing in this all important first match. She smiled, nodding when appropriate, half listening while her attention was on the sweet snack dribbling sticky syrup down her fingers.
"You are going to come with me, right?"
Viktor's question snapped her focus back on him.
"Coming?"
He rolled his eyes good naturedly, "To the first game, of course. You have to support the students, you're their professor now."
She grinned up at him. "Well, if you put it that way...how can I refuse."
He clapped his hands together in delight. "Wonderful, we should get home and pack an overnight bag. We can take a portkey in the morning. I have already booked us rooms at a nice hotel. It's going to be great!"
Hermione giggled at his boyish enthusiasm until it occurred to her that she didn't know where the first game was being held. Viktor surely had mentioned it, but her attention had been on that delicious peach pastry.
"Where are we going again? I want to pack appropriately for the weather."
Viktor laughed out loud in excitement and pulled her along more quickly down the hall.
"Why, Hogwart's, of course."
Draco finally started to sleep through the night after the Greengrass' last visit. Astoria had set him down and told him all about her medical condition. She offered to cancel their engagement immediately, but before Draco could even respond, an elf had come to fetch Astoria to leave with her parents.
While he was still trying to process all she had confessed to him, Lucius came into the library and informed Draco that the engagement was truly over. His father also told him that they would not be seeking a replacement bride at the moment, instead wanted him to relax and take over the Quidditch program that the Malfoy family was funding through Hogwarts.
Freedom and Quidditch! Draco couldn't believe his luck, but he kept his expression solemn and serious, least his father change his mind. Lucius filled him in on the details and outlined Draco's obligations to the program. The first of which was going to the school to oversee the delivery of new equipment and get a look at the team.
Returning to Hogwarts.
His father droned on, but Draco was already off in his memories of chocolate eyes that sparkled with intelligence and soft curls that smelled of the sweetest fruits.
A week later and a well-rested Draco Malfoy was standing at the gates of his former school, the place where his best and worst memories resided.
Hogwarts. Hermione.
.