CHAPTER 14
"Why thank you, Draco." She kissed him on the cheek. "Now will my Prince Charming escort me to the dance?"
"Of course, my fair lady."
They linked arms and headed down to the Great Hall. It was just like they had planned it. The whole Hall looked like ice. Every wall was covered and ice sculptures were set up in places where they could be seen without getting in the way.
People were pouring into the Great Hall and standing around in amazement. They had never seen the Hall look so beautiful.
There was a slow song playing. Draco led Hermione onto the dance floor and they began dancing with the music. He held her close as if he never wanted to let her go.
When the song ended, "My Friends Over You" by New Found Glory came on. They danced for hours before they finally got something to drink.
Cephius and Elana were sitting at a table talking, so Draco and Hermione went over to them.
"Hey guys," Cephius and Elana acknowledged.
"Hey how's your night going?" Draco asked.
"Great!" said Elana. "You guys have the greatest dances here."
"Yeah, where does the music come from?" asked Cephius.
"Dumbledore enchanted the walls so they would play music no-stop," said Hermione.
"Can we go dance again, Cephius?" Elana begged.
"Of course! Let's go!" he said smiling.
"Draco, let's go dance again. We've been sitting here long enough." Hermione said.
"Okay, come on."
They went back on the dance floor and didn't stop dancing until the dance was over.
When they got back to the common room, they took showers to cool down and went to bed. ~ "'Mione! 'Mione! Come on, get up!" Draco yelled. She was in a deep sleep and obviously did not want to wake up. "'Mione we got class in three minutes!"
"WHAT?!" she sat up quickly.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Relax. But we do hafta leave in an hour, and my father will be very, very pissed if we don't go."
"I'll get ready quickly then," she yawned. "I'm so tired."
"Me too," Draco agreed. "But we really do have to go to my house." ~ They were in the carriages, when all of a sudden they came to an abrupt halt. Draco and Hermione heard screams come from other carriages, but they knew what was going on. The Death Eaters had stopped them so they could kill all the muggle-born and muggle-lovers.
They saw a Death Eater look through the window and a few seconds later they were rolling along to the Hogsmeade station.
When they got there, they looked toward the school and saw a big puff of smoke, people running around frantically, and all the Death Eaters running away from curses and hexes.
Hermione and Draco boarded the train and were followed by the students that didn't get killed. Judging by the number of people who were on the train and who was on the train, the Death Eaters did not complete their job.
"Draco, I'm nervous. What if your parents don't like me? Would they kill me?" Hermione asked.
"Hermione, believe me, my parents will love you. And if they didn't, they wouldn't kill you for two reasons. First and foremost, I love you and I will never let them lay a hand on you. The second is, you're Voldemort's daughter and he'd kill them if they harmed you in any way. I promise, you'll be fine."
Hermione nodded and leaned on his chest and fell asleep. An hour later the witch with the cart came by. Draco bought a bunch of candy for him and Hermione to share. When the witch left, Draco shook Hermione awake so they could eat the candy.
The train stopped an hour later and Draco and Hermione got off. They quickly found Lucius and he led them to a black limo.
Hermione was looking out the window and hardly heard Draco say, "We're there."
She got out of the car and looked up at the giant mansion that stood in front of her. It was big and white and looked like ten families should be living there instead of three people and house elves.
"You live here?" she asked unbelievingly.
"Yeah, why? A little bigger than you're used to?"
"The only place that I know of that's bigger is Hogwarts and not by much either."
"Well, we didn't just come here to stand out in the freezing cold to admire my house. Come on inside. Don't worry about your luggage, the house elves will bring your luggage up."
He grabbed her hand and led her to the house. Lucius followed closely behind them. The outside was nothing compared to the inside. The entrance hall was huge and a giant chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. The house was beautifully furnished.
Narcissa greeted them when they walked in. "Oh, Draco, I'm so glad you're back!" she said hugging him. "You never said good bye or wrote to tell me that you were okay. You just took off." She let him go and hit him in the arm and screamed, "NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!"
Draco jumped and answered, "I'm sorry, Mom. I just had to take care of some things. I didn't plan on leaving like that, it just kinda happened. Anyway, this is my girlfriend, Hermione Riddle."
Hermione shook her hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy."
"Oh please, dear, call me Narcissa."
Hermione nodded and Narcissa spoke to Draco again. "Why don't you show Hermione where she will be staying. It's the room that's right next to yours."
"Yes, Mother."
"And be back down in time for dinner!"
"Yes, Mom." He smiled a sweet innocent smile that was also very fake and led Hermione to the elevator.
"She seems nice," Hermione commented.
"Yeah, sometimes she's a little too nice. If she gets mad though you'd better get out of the way. Floor eight." He commanded the elevator.
"Why's that?"
"'Cause she's a lot stronger than she looks." Draco saw the scared look on Hermione's face. "Don't worry, she doesn't get mad often. Only when Father comes home drunk, or I get a bad grade, or I confuse the house elves into doing things they're not supposed to do so I can watch them beat themselves up."
"Draco, that's horrible!" she said as they got out of the elevator.
"What? Making house elves beat themselves up? It's actually quite entertaining," he said with a smirk.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and followed him down the hall. They passed a series of doors before Draco pointed and said, "This is my room." Then they walked to the next door and he said, "And this is yours."
He opened her door for her. The room was more like a living room than a bedroom. There was a fireplace and couches and chairs, it even had a balcony outside. The only reason it could be classified as a living room was because of the king-sized bed.
Hermione was speechless. Her trunk had already been bought up and her clothes were in a wardrobe in the corner. After a few minutes Hermione said, "This is a bedroom?"
"Well yeah. There's a bed and this is a room," Draco answered sarcastically. "And all this time I thought you were the smartest witch in our year. What was I thinking? Maybe I should write Dumbledore and have him take your Head Girl badge away."
"HaHaHa! Oh my God Draco! You are just so funny. You're like the funniest guy I've ever met. Oh man, that was so funny. I think I'm gunna die of laughter. HaHaHa!"
"Shut up!"
"Why would I do that? I don't wanna give you the pleasure of bossing me around, so I think I'll just-"
She never got to finish the sentence because Draco's lips were on top of hers.
They broke apart quickly. Draco said, "If you don't wanna listen to me, you have to suffer the consequences."
"I wouldn't exactly call that suffering. That was actually rather enjoyable."
"I have ways to make you suffer, but you're not gunna find out.yet." An evil smirk played across his lips.
"DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY!" Lucius' voice bellowed. "GET DOWN HERE, NOW! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!"
"Yes, Father," Draco said.
"Are you sure he heard that?" Hermione asked.
"Yup. When he needs me, he puts a charm on the house that makes his voice and mine audible no matter what room we're in."
"Oh okay."
Draco and Hermione headed downstairs once again so they could have a nice normal meal at the Malfoy Manor.
Okay, so dinner at the Malfoy Manor wasn't exactly "normal." It consisted of the three Malfoys (and now Hermione) sitting in a large dining room and no one speaking. The only time anyone talked was to order food and drink that were sent up from the kitchens. Everyone looked totally comfortable except Hermione. She thought the silence was a little overbearing, but wouldn't say anything.
After dinner, Lucius left the house without saying a word.
"Is dinner always that quiet?" Hermione asked once they were in Draco's room.
"Yeah. It's been like that ever since I could remember. I remember asking why it was like that when I was seven. My Father hit me across the face and said, 'Cause it is!' Well since then, I haven't said a word at dinner."
"Oh." Hermione looked down at her hands. "Has your father always hit you?"
"Yeah, but as I got older, they got more brutal. Now he uses the Cruciatus Curse on me when it's a 'major offense.' When it's a smaller offense, he just beats me." Draco looked uncomfortable and Hermione noticed this.
"Have you told anyone this?" she asked.
"No, he said he'd kill me if I did."
"Oh, Draco, I'm so sorry."
She put her arms around him and he put his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while until he heard a loud, booming voice.
"DRACO GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE, NOW!"
"I'm coming," he answered.
"Draco don't go," Hermione begged.
"I have to, he's drunk and if he comes up here, he'll hit you too. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Draco got up and went downstairs, and was greeted by a very drunk Lucius. Lucius raised his hand and hit him in the face. Draco didn't flinch, so Lucius punched him in the stomach. Again, he didn't move. Draco was taught never to show pain. Lucius saw this and kicked Draco hard in the back of the knee. Draco fell and grabbed his leg.
"Never show pain!" Lucius roared and started kicking Draco. By the time he was finished, Draco had cuts and bruises all over his body, a bloody nose and lip, and a black eye.
After five minutes of lying on the floor, Draco stood up and with some difficulty made his way over to the elevator and up to his room.
When he got there, Hermione was pacing and he threw himself down on his bed. "Hermione, can you help me."
"Draco, what happened?" She was very shocked at his appearance and had tears in her eyes.
"Just help me. Please get a wet towel."
Hermione went across to the bathroom, wet a towel and then brought it back to Draco and started dabbing his lip and nose. Within seconds, the towel was totally red.
Once his nose and lip stopped bleeding, Draco took off his shirt and started looking at the bruises he had just been given. There were bruises covering his entire chest and back.
"Do you know a spell to get rid of them?" he asked. Hermione nodded, took his wand and performed a healing spell. All the bruises quickly dissolved. "Thank you so much."
Again, Hermione nodded and asked, "Why does he do that?"
"I don't know. I guess to show that he has power over me. He thinks he's superior to everyone and I used to think that I was too. I used to want to be just like him and I guess I am in some ways: I'm alleged to Voldemort.okay, maybe that's the only thing we have in common. The truth is I don't wanna be like him. I swore to myself when I was nine that I'd never hit my kids or my wife, and I'm sticking to that promise."
He lay back down on his bed and Hermione crawled up next to him. "Can I stay here tonight?"
Draco nodded and wrapped his arms around her. ~ The next morning, Draco woke up and felt something warm against his body. He opened his eyes and saw Hermione curled up against him, and the memories of what had happened the previous night came flooding back to him. He kissed the top of her head and her eyes fluttered opened.
"'Morning," she said looking up into his silver eyes.
"G'morning" he answered.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Like it never even happened, thanks to you." He smiled down at her and she cuddled up closer to him.
"I love Draco Malfoy," she whispered.
"I love you too, Hermione Riddle."
"Why thank you, Draco." She kissed him on the cheek. "Now will my Prince Charming escort me to the dance?"
"Of course, my fair lady."
They linked arms and headed down to the Great Hall. It was just like they had planned it. The whole Hall looked like ice. Every wall was covered and ice sculptures were set up in places where they could be seen without getting in the way.
People were pouring into the Great Hall and standing around in amazement. They had never seen the Hall look so beautiful.
There was a slow song playing. Draco led Hermione onto the dance floor and they began dancing with the music. He held her close as if he never wanted to let her go.
When the song ended, "My Friends Over You" by New Found Glory came on. They danced for hours before they finally got something to drink.
Cephius and Elana were sitting at a table talking, so Draco and Hermione went over to them.
"Hey guys," Cephius and Elana acknowledged.
"Hey how's your night going?" Draco asked.
"Great!" said Elana. "You guys have the greatest dances here."
"Yeah, where does the music come from?" asked Cephius.
"Dumbledore enchanted the walls so they would play music no-stop," said Hermione.
"Can we go dance again, Cephius?" Elana begged.
"Of course! Let's go!" he said smiling.
"Draco, let's go dance again. We've been sitting here long enough." Hermione said.
"Okay, come on."
They went back on the dance floor and didn't stop dancing until the dance was over.
When they got back to the common room, they took showers to cool down and went to bed. ~ "'Mione! 'Mione! Come on, get up!" Draco yelled. She was in a deep sleep and obviously did not want to wake up. "'Mione we got class in three minutes!"
"WHAT?!" she sat up quickly.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Relax. But we do hafta leave in an hour, and my father will be very, very pissed if we don't go."
"I'll get ready quickly then," she yawned. "I'm so tired."
"Me too," Draco agreed. "But we really do have to go to my house." ~ They were in the carriages, when all of a sudden they came to an abrupt halt. Draco and Hermione heard screams come from other carriages, but they knew what was going on. The Death Eaters had stopped them so they could kill all the muggle-born and muggle-lovers.
They saw a Death Eater look through the window and a few seconds later they were rolling along to the Hogsmeade station.
When they got there, they looked toward the school and saw a big puff of smoke, people running around frantically, and all the Death Eaters running away from curses and hexes.
Hermione and Draco boarded the train and were followed by the students that didn't get killed. Judging by the number of people who were on the train and who was on the train, the Death Eaters did not complete their job.
"Draco, I'm nervous. What if your parents don't like me? Would they kill me?" Hermione asked.
"Hermione, believe me, my parents will love you. And if they didn't, they wouldn't kill you for two reasons. First and foremost, I love you and I will never let them lay a hand on you. The second is, you're Voldemort's daughter and he'd kill them if they harmed you in any way. I promise, you'll be fine."
Hermione nodded and leaned on his chest and fell asleep. An hour later the witch with the cart came by. Draco bought a bunch of candy for him and Hermione to share. When the witch left, Draco shook Hermione awake so they could eat the candy.
The train stopped an hour later and Draco and Hermione got off. They quickly found Lucius and he led them to a black limo.
Hermione was looking out the window and hardly heard Draco say, "We're there."
She got out of the car and looked up at the giant mansion that stood in front of her. It was big and white and looked like ten families should be living there instead of three people and house elves.
"You live here?" she asked unbelievingly.
"Yeah, why? A little bigger than you're used to?"
"The only place that I know of that's bigger is Hogwarts and not by much either."
"Well, we didn't just come here to stand out in the freezing cold to admire my house. Come on inside. Don't worry about your luggage, the house elves will bring your luggage up."
He grabbed her hand and led her to the house. Lucius followed closely behind them. The outside was nothing compared to the inside. The entrance hall was huge and a giant chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. The house was beautifully furnished.
Narcissa greeted them when they walked in. "Oh, Draco, I'm so glad you're back!" she said hugging him. "You never said good bye or wrote to tell me that you were okay. You just took off." She let him go and hit him in the arm and screamed, "NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!"
Draco jumped and answered, "I'm sorry, Mom. I just had to take care of some things. I didn't plan on leaving like that, it just kinda happened. Anyway, this is my girlfriend, Hermione Riddle."
Hermione shook her hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy."
"Oh please, dear, call me Narcissa."
Hermione nodded and Narcissa spoke to Draco again. "Why don't you show Hermione where she will be staying. It's the room that's right next to yours."
"Yes, Mother."
"And be back down in time for dinner!"
"Yes, Mom." He smiled a sweet innocent smile that was also very fake and led Hermione to the elevator.
"She seems nice," Hermione commented.
"Yeah, sometimes she's a little too nice. If she gets mad though you'd better get out of the way. Floor eight." He commanded the elevator.
"Why's that?"
"'Cause she's a lot stronger than she looks." Draco saw the scared look on Hermione's face. "Don't worry, she doesn't get mad often. Only when Father comes home drunk, or I get a bad grade, or I confuse the house elves into doing things they're not supposed to do so I can watch them beat themselves up."
"Draco, that's horrible!" she said as they got out of the elevator.
"What? Making house elves beat themselves up? It's actually quite entertaining," he said with a smirk.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and followed him down the hall. They passed a series of doors before Draco pointed and said, "This is my room." Then they walked to the next door and he said, "And this is yours."
He opened her door for her. The room was more like a living room than a bedroom. There was a fireplace and couches and chairs, it even had a balcony outside. The only reason it could be classified as a living room was because of the king-sized bed.
Hermione was speechless. Her trunk had already been bought up and her clothes were in a wardrobe in the corner. After a few minutes Hermione said, "This is a bedroom?"
"Well yeah. There's a bed and this is a room," Draco answered sarcastically. "And all this time I thought you were the smartest witch in our year. What was I thinking? Maybe I should write Dumbledore and have him take your Head Girl badge away."
"HaHaHa! Oh my God Draco! You are just so funny. You're like the funniest guy I've ever met. Oh man, that was so funny. I think I'm gunna die of laughter. HaHaHa!"
"Shut up!"
"Why would I do that? I don't wanna give you the pleasure of bossing me around, so I think I'll just-"
She never got to finish the sentence because Draco's lips were on top of hers.
They broke apart quickly. Draco said, "If you don't wanna listen to me, you have to suffer the consequences."
"I wouldn't exactly call that suffering. That was actually rather enjoyable."
"I have ways to make you suffer, but you're not gunna find out.yet." An evil smirk played across his lips.
"DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY!" Lucius' voice bellowed. "GET DOWN HERE, NOW! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!"
"Yes, Father," Draco said.
"Are you sure he heard that?" Hermione asked.
"Yup. When he needs me, he puts a charm on the house that makes his voice and mine audible no matter what room we're in."
"Oh okay."
Draco and Hermione headed downstairs once again so they could have a nice normal meal at the Malfoy Manor.
Okay, so dinner at the Malfoy Manor wasn't exactly "normal." It consisted of the three Malfoys (and now Hermione) sitting in a large dining room and no one speaking. The only time anyone talked was to order food and drink that were sent up from the kitchens. Everyone looked totally comfortable except Hermione. She thought the silence was a little overbearing, but wouldn't say anything.
After dinner, Lucius left the house without saying a word.
"Is dinner always that quiet?" Hermione asked once they were in Draco's room.
"Yeah. It's been like that ever since I could remember. I remember asking why it was like that when I was seven. My Father hit me across the face and said, 'Cause it is!' Well since then, I haven't said a word at dinner."
"Oh." Hermione looked down at her hands. "Has your father always hit you?"
"Yeah, but as I got older, they got more brutal. Now he uses the Cruciatus Curse on me when it's a 'major offense.' When it's a smaller offense, he just beats me." Draco looked uncomfortable and Hermione noticed this.
"Have you told anyone this?" she asked.
"No, he said he'd kill me if I did."
"Oh, Draco, I'm so sorry."
She put her arms around him and he put his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while until he heard a loud, booming voice.
"DRACO GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE, NOW!"
"I'm coming," he answered.
"Draco don't go," Hermione begged.
"I have to, he's drunk and if he comes up here, he'll hit you too. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Draco got up and went downstairs, and was greeted by a very drunk Lucius. Lucius raised his hand and hit him in the face. Draco didn't flinch, so Lucius punched him in the stomach. Again, he didn't move. Draco was taught never to show pain. Lucius saw this and kicked Draco hard in the back of the knee. Draco fell and grabbed his leg.
"Never show pain!" Lucius roared and started kicking Draco. By the time he was finished, Draco had cuts and bruises all over his body, a bloody nose and lip, and a black eye.
After five minutes of lying on the floor, Draco stood up and with some difficulty made his way over to the elevator and up to his room.
When he got there, Hermione was pacing and he threw himself down on his bed. "Hermione, can you help me."
"Draco, what happened?" She was very shocked at his appearance and had tears in her eyes.
"Just help me. Please get a wet towel."
Hermione went across to the bathroom, wet a towel and then brought it back to Draco and started dabbing his lip and nose. Within seconds, the towel was totally red.
Once his nose and lip stopped bleeding, Draco took off his shirt and started looking at the bruises he had just been given. There were bruises covering his entire chest and back.
"Do you know a spell to get rid of them?" he asked. Hermione nodded, took his wand and performed a healing spell. All the bruises quickly dissolved. "Thank you so much."
Again, Hermione nodded and asked, "Why does he do that?"
"I don't know. I guess to show that he has power over me. He thinks he's superior to everyone and I used to think that I was too. I used to want to be just like him and I guess I am in some ways: I'm alleged to Voldemort.okay, maybe that's the only thing we have in common. The truth is I don't wanna be like him. I swore to myself when I was nine that I'd never hit my kids or my wife, and I'm sticking to that promise."
He lay back down on his bed and Hermione crawled up next to him. "Can I stay here tonight?"
Draco nodded and wrapped his arms around her. ~ The next morning, Draco woke up and felt something warm against his body. He opened his eyes and saw Hermione curled up against him, and the memories of what had happened the previous night came flooding back to him. He kissed the top of her head and her eyes fluttered opened.
"'Morning," she said looking up into his silver eyes.
"G'morning" he answered.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Like it never even happened, thanks to you." He smiled down at her and she cuddled up closer to him.
"I love Draco Malfoy," she whispered.
"I love you too, Hermione Riddle."