After the housing crew arrived the following day, Hermione felt
restless. She hated sitting around doing nothing while they cleaned.
Draco had left for his new job almost immediately after the cleaning crew
had begun working and Hermione wasn't sure what to do with herself.
She sat on the sofa for a while, trying to break it is, seeing as it was new. Then when one of the cleaning ladies came in to run the magical vacuum across the floor, Hermione stood up quickly to leave.
"I didn't mean to frighten you away," said the lady, smiling gently. "You can stay if you like."
"I'm not leaving because of you," Hermione started. She was going to finish with, "I was leaving because you're cleaning," but that sounded utterly impeded. "I forgot I have to do something upstairs." She returned a brief smile to the happy cleaning lady before asking her name.
"Hilda," the lady replied. She was about middle-aged with brunette hair and brown eyes. She looked friendly enough and Hermione found it difficult to believe she could be one of Lucius' spies.
"It's nice to meet you, Hilda," Hermione said. "But I really do have to get upstairs. I'll see you again soon."
"I'm sure you will," Hilda said, as Hermione started up the staircase. Smiling to herself, happy to have met someone who wasn't looking extremely sour, Hermione flung herself on the bed. She felt like screaming, she was so bored. Sitting up, she played a quick game of Solitaire with a Muggle deck of cards she had gotten from her parents years ago. After losing several times in a row, and refusing to cheat, she gave up and sat back against the pillows on the enormous bed.
Feeling the child in her come bursting forth, she had a major urge to stand up on the bed and begin jumping. Mature and responsible as she may be, she sometimes wished she could revert back to her childhood when everything was so easy and simple. But she passed up on the bed-jumping idea, convinced that anyone who witnessed that act might think she was on the brink of insanity. She buried her face in the pillow and drifted in and out of a soft sleep.
"Hermione! Hermione, get up. It's almost six. You've been asleep far too long. Wake up!"
Hermione shrugged the voice off as her imagination and tried to bring herself back to the dream world. She was having a wonderful dream about her, Ron and Harry at Hogwarts. They were sitting outside, laughing and joking. Everyone was getting along and there was a peaceful atmosphere around them.
"Hermione! Do I have to get the hose?"
Draco's threat made her take notice of his insistence. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "What time did you say it was?"
"Almost six." Draco looked exhausted. His hair was falling over one eye and he was standing lopsided, like someone had placed something incredibly heavy on his one shoulder. "Supper is soon; will you hurry up and get out of bed?" He went to the mirror on the wall to fix his hair. "You'll never believe who came into the office today. That Weasley scum you used to hang around with. He came in looking for a licence to start his own business."
"Ron?" Hermione felt like she was still dreaming. "What department do you work in anyway, Draco?"
"Magical permits and licences," he replied bitterly. "But Father says as soon as something else comes along, they'll move me to a higher level. All in all, it's not a bad place to start." He nodded, content with his hair. "I wouldn't have given Weasley the permit, but Hobbs, my partner, decided he seemed worthy enough." Draco gave a snort of contempt. "Whatever. Well, I'm ready for dinner." He walked to the doorway and held the door for a moment. "Coming?"
Hermione felt confused. She was happy for Ron, if he was starting his own business, but on the other hand, he must not be all that occupied with thoughts of her if he wasn't too busy to open his own business. Should she be happy or upset at this thought? She climbed off the bed and straightened her clothes. "What kind of business was he starting?" she asked nonchalantly as she headed into the washroom to freshen up.
"Something about practical jokes," came the reply. "Will you hurry up? I'm starving."
"Well, I can see why," Hermione thought to herself. "You've never worked a day in your life." She finished fixing herself up before following Draco downstairs.
That night, Hermione crawled into bed as usual, after changing in the washroom. She felt comfortable between the coolness of the sheets and breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of fresh lemons.
"Why do you always change in the washroom?" Draco asked after a few moments of lying in complete silence. The moonlight was streaming in the window as Hermione turned to face her husband.
"I don't know," she replied honestly.
"Why don't you start changing out here?"
Hermione began to squirm. She knew he was going to ask these questions, but she dreaded the moment when he did. "I don't know," she repeated. "I just don't."
Draco, who had been propped up on his elbow looking at her, dropped down on his back. "It's not like I'm never going to see you without your clothes," he said quietly, "although it's starting to feel that way."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. Once again, Draco sat up, but refused to look at her.
"We've been married for almost two weeks now, Hermione!" he cried, throwing his hands up in frustration. "And so far, we've failed to have sex!"
Hermione winced and turned away from him. "I was taught that you have sex with someone you love."
She could hear the hesitation in Draco's voice. "Do you love me?"
It was Hermione's turn to hesitate. "I thought I did," she confessed. "When I first started living at Malfoy Manor. You were so kind and caring and protective of me. I used to love our little late-night chats outside on the bench in the backyard. It was all so romantic."
"Then what happened?"
Hermione sat up and looked him directly in the eye. "Then we got married."
The next thing she knew, Draco was on top of her, his lips pressed heavily to hers. She tried to avoid him and move out of the way, but she felt crushed. After a moment, something deep inside her stirred, the same thing that stirred within her the last time he had kissed her. She felt herself relenting to him and his will.
It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. She relaxed and let her body have a mind of it's own. When it was over, Draco fell almost immediately to sleep, leaving Hermione torn between tears of happiness that it was finally over, and tears of sorrow because it wasn't with someone she truly loved. It took her hours to fall asleep as she watched the moon outside the window, hoping that Ron and Harry were looking up at it, too.
When Hermione awoke the next morning, Draco was already up and had left for work. She stayed in bed for a while, contemplating how things would be between them now. She felt a little sore when she finally did stand up, but a hot shower solved that problem. She got dressed and decided to go shopping that day, to clear her head.
"Do you need a ride?" asked Harley, their new chauffeur.
"No, thank you," Hermione replied, smiling gratefully at him. "It's only few minutes' walk. I'll be fine." She headed down the long drive and out onto the street. Moments later, she arrived in the village, looking around, wondering where to begin. There was so much to look at, now that she was looking specifically for Ron's store.
Giggling voice behind her called her name as she went to enter the Three Broomsticks for a quick drink. "Hermione! Over here!"
Turning in the direction of the commotion, she noticed Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil waving happily at her. "How are you?" Parvati gushed. "It's been so long!"
"Yes, it has," Hermione agreed quietly, eyeing the numerous shopping bags in their hands. Lavender seemed to be avoiding her eye, but Parvati made no attempts to hush anything up.
"How is it going as Mrs. Malfoy?" She giggled as she said the name. "Hermione Malfoy. That's so cute!"
"It's going okay," Hermione lied, not wanting to admit that the first time she and her husband had made love was almost two weeks after their wedding. "It's a little hectic right now."
"I can imagine," Parvati said, growing deadly serious, "with Lucius Malfoy as a father-in-law." She shuddered. "Draco's bad enough, let alone his father. It's like two of them in one shot!"
Lavender cleared her throat and Parvati looked at her, surprised. "Well, we should be going," she said quickly. "I told my parents we'd be back by lunchtime. Take care, okay?"
"You guys, too," Hermione said, waving back. She watched them enviously as they giggled and skipped their way out of sight. What she wouldn't have given right them to be one of the happy ones, walking along with no cares in the world? How nice that would be.
That afternoon, Hermione bought several frilly objects to place around the house, more for her own pleasure now than to simply annoy Draco. She was intent on making things work with him, or if not work, at least be peaceful. She wasn't sure how he would react upon seeing her after last night's so-called passion, so instead of heading back to the manor after shopping, she took a trip to Hogwarts.
Seeing her old school made her heart jump and her eyes well up with tears. It seemed all she was doing these days was spending endless hours crying over nothing. It got to be irritating after a while and she was intent on making it stop. Grinding her damp eyes, she stared up at the giant castle, finding herself somewhat homesick.
Oh, the times she had spent in that castle and on it's magnificent grounds. She couldn't resist playing in her mind, over and over again, the first time Ron had kissed her. It had been down by the lake and it wasn't anything serious. Just a goodbye kiss after their sixth year until he saw her again at the Burrow in the beginning of August. That had been a long summer, no doubt about it, and she couldn't have been happier to return to school. Seeing her friends made her day brighten.
Now, dreary as it seemed, she managed to gather up all her energy and drag herself back to the mansion. It was after seven in the evening and Hermione fully expected a lecture from Draco the minute she entered the house, but no such event occurred.
"Where's Draco?" she asked Hilda as she threw her jacket over the back of a kitchen chair. Grabbing a carrot stick from the vegetable tray the cook always prepared with dinner, Hermione straddled the chair where she threw her jacket and stared at Hilda.
The cleaning lady stopped wiping the counter, looking confused. "I don't know," she finally replied. "He came in after work, in a terribly bad mood, but what else is new? Anyway, he muttered something about having to see his father immediately."
"Wonder what Lucius wants?" Hermione mused, chewing softly on the carrot stick. If Lucius was going to try and butt into their lives again, Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
"I don't think it was so much his choice," Hilda said quietly, referring to Lucius Malfoy. "His son seemed rather insistent on speaking with him no matter what the circumstances were."
Hermione nodded slowly before standing up. " Thanks," she muttered to Hilda. "Please tell the others that I will wait until Draco is home before having supper." She fled upstairs to her bedroom, inhaling the lemony scent that breezed through the room. She sat on the bed heavily, wondering what was so important with Lucius that Draco would miss a chance to reprimand Hermione. Finding herself incredibly bored, she began flipping through one of Lily's diaries to pass the time. She read all about Lily's detailed descriptions of their wacky Muggle neighbours and re-read baby Harry's journey through toddler-age. Before she knew it, almost an hour had passed and she heard heavy footsteps banging up the staircase.
"Damn it!" Draco entered the room so forcefully that all of Hermione's thoughts about how he would act towards her after the night before flew out the window. "Damn him to hell!" he cursed again.
"What?" Hermione sat up on her knees on the bed, eager to hear why Draco was so mad at a certain person that Hermione would bet was Lucius Malfoy.
Draco suddenly seemed to notice that she was in the room. "Nothing," he muttered quickly, staring in the mirror on the wall. "Nothing at all." His suddenly cheerful façade made Hermione shake her head.
"Nice try," she coaxed, "but seriously, what's wrong?"
"Just a bad day," Draco replied. "But I'm starved now. When are we eating?"
She sat on the sofa for a while, trying to break it is, seeing as it was new. Then when one of the cleaning ladies came in to run the magical vacuum across the floor, Hermione stood up quickly to leave.
"I didn't mean to frighten you away," said the lady, smiling gently. "You can stay if you like."
"I'm not leaving because of you," Hermione started. She was going to finish with, "I was leaving because you're cleaning," but that sounded utterly impeded. "I forgot I have to do something upstairs." She returned a brief smile to the happy cleaning lady before asking her name.
"Hilda," the lady replied. She was about middle-aged with brunette hair and brown eyes. She looked friendly enough and Hermione found it difficult to believe she could be one of Lucius' spies.
"It's nice to meet you, Hilda," Hermione said. "But I really do have to get upstairs. I'll see you again soon."
"I'm sure you will," Hilda said, as Hermione started up the staircase. Smiling to herself, happy to have met someone who wasn't looking extremely sour, Hermione flung herself on the bed. She felt like screaming, she was so bored. Sitting up, she played a quick game of Solitaire with a Muggle deck of cards she had gotten from her parents years ago. After losing several times in a row, and refusing to cheat, she gave up and sat back against the pillows on the enormous bed.
Feeling the child in her come bursting forth, she had a major urge to stand up on the bed and begin jumping. Mature and responsible as she may be, she sometimes wished she could revert back to her childhood when everything was so easy and simple. But she passed up on the bed-jumping idea, convinced that anyone who witnessed that act might think she was on the brink of insanity. She buried her face in the pillow and drifted in and out of a soft sleep.
"Hermione! Hermione, get up. It's almost six. You've been asleep far too long. Wake up!"
Hermione shrugged the voice off as her imagination and tried to bring herself back to the dream world. She was having a wonderful dream about her, Ron and Harry at Hogwarts. They were sitting outside, laughing and joking. Everyone was getting along and there was a peaceful atmosphere around them.
"Hermione! Do I have to get the hose?"
Draco's threat made her take notice of his insistence. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "What time did you say it was?"
"Almost six." Draco looked exhausted. His hair was falling over one eye and he was standing lopsided, like someone had placed something incredibly heavy on his one shoulder. "Supper is soon; will you hurry up and get out of bed?" He went to the mirror on the wall to fix his hair. "You'll never believe who came into the office today. That Weasley scum you used to hang around with. He came in looking for a licence to start his own business."
"Ron?" Hermione felt like she was still dreaming. "What department do you work in anyway, Draco?"
"Magical permits and licences," he replied bitterly. "But Father says as soon as something else comes along, they'll move me to a higher level. All in all, it's not a bad place to start." He nodded, content with his hair. "I wouldn't have given Weasley the permit, but Hobbs, my partner, decided he seemed worthy enough." Draco gave a snort of contempt. "Whatever. Well, I'm ready for dinner." He walked to the doorway and held the door for a moment. "Coming?"
Hermione felt confused. She was happy for Ron, if he was starting his own business, but on the other hand, he must not be all that occupied with thoughts of her if he wasn't too busy to open his own business. Should she be happy or upset at this thought? She climbed off the bed and straightened her clothes. "What kind of business was he starting?" she asked nonchalantly as she headed into the washroom to freshen up.
"Something about practical jokes," came the reply. "Will you hurry up? I'm starving."
"Well, I can see why," Hermione thought to herself. "You've never worked a day in your life." She finished fixing herself up before following Draco downstairs.
That night, Hermione crawled into bed as usual, after changing in the washroom. She felt comfortable between the coolness of the sheets and breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of fresh lemons.
"Why do you always change in the washroom?" Draco asked after a few moments of lying in complete silence. The moonlight was streaming in the window as Hermione turned to face her husband.
"I don't know," she replied honestly.
"Why don't you start changing out here?"
Hermione began to squirm. She knew he was going to ask these questions, but she dreaded the moment when he did. "I don't know," she repeated. "I just don't."
Draco, who had been propped up on his elbow looking at her, dropped down on his back. "It's not like I'm never going to see you without your clothes," he said quietly, "although it's starting to feel that way."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. Once again, Draco sat up, but refused to look at her.
"We've been married for almost two weeks now, Hermione!" he cried, throwing his hands up in frustration. "And so far, we've failed to have sex!"
Hermione winced and turned away from him. "I was taught that you have sex with someone you love."
She could hear the hesitation in Draco's voice. "Do you love me?"
It was Hermione's turn to hesitate. "I thought I did," she confessed. "When I first started living at Malfoy Manor. You were so kind and caring and protective of me. I used to love our little late-night chats outside on the bench in the backyard. It was all so romantic."
"Then what happened?"
Hermione sat up and looked him directly in the eye. "Then we got married."
The next thing she knew, Draco was on top of her, his lips pressed heavily to hers. She tried to avoid him and move out of the way, but she felt crushed. After a moment, something deep inside her stirred, the same thing that stirred within her the last time he had kissed her. She felt herself relenting to him and his will.
It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. She relaxed and let her body have a mind of it's own. When it was over, Draco fell almost immediately to sleep, leaving Hermione torn between tears of happiness that it was finally over, and tears of sorrow because it wasn't with someone she truly loved. It took her hours to fall asleep as she watched the moon outside the window, hoping that Ron and Harry were looking up at it, too.
When Hermione awoke the next morning, Draco was already up and had left for work. She stayed in bed for a while, contemplating how things would be between them now. She felt a little sore when she finally did stand up, but a hot shower solved that problem. She got dressed and decided to go shopping that day, to clear her head.
"Do you need a ride?" asked Harley, their new chauffeur.
"No, thank you," Hermione replied, smiling gratefully at him. "It's only few minutes' walk. I'll be fine." She headed down the long drive and out onto the street. Moments later, she arrived in the village, looking around, wondering where to begin. There was so much to look at, now that she was looking specifically for Ron's store.
Giggling voice behind her called her name as she went to enter the Three Broomsticks for a quick drink. "Hermione! Over here!"
Turning in the direction of the commotion, she noticed Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil waving happily at her. "How are you?" Parvati gushed. "It's been so long!"
"Yes, it has," Hermione agreed quietly, eyeing the numerous shopping bags in their hands. Lavender seemed to be avoiding her eye, but Parvati made no attempts to hush anything up.
"How is it going as Mrs. Malfoy?" She giggled as she said the name. "Hermione Malfoy. That's so cute!"
"It's going okay," Hermione lied, not wanting to admit that the first time she and her husband had made love was almost two weeks after their wedding. "It's a little hectic right now."
"I can imagine," Parvati said, growing deadly serious, "with Lucius Malfoy as a father-in-law." She shuddered. "Draco's bad enough, let alone his father. It's like two of them in one shot!"
Lavender cleared her throat and Parvati looked at her, surprised. "Well, we should be going," she said quickly. "I told my parents we'd be back by lunchtime. Take care, okay?"
"You guys, too," Hermione said, waving back. She watched them enviously as they giggled and skipped their way out of sight. What she wouldn't have given right them to be one of the happy ones, walking along with no cares in the world? How nice that would be.
That afternoon, Hermione bought several frilly objects to place around the house, more for her own pleasure now than to simply annoy Draco. She was intent on making things work with him, or if not work, at least be peaceful. She wasn't sure how he would react upon seeing her after last night's so-called passion, so instead of heading back to the manor after shopping, she took a trip to Hogwarts.
Seeing her old school made her heart jump and her eyes well up with tears. It seemed all she was doing these days was spending endless hours crying over nothing. It got to be irritating after a while and she was intent on making it stop. Grinding her damp eyes, she stared up at the giant castle, finding herself somewhat homesick.
Oh, the times she had spent in that castle and on it's magnificent grounds. She couldn't resist playing in her mind, over and over again, the first time Ron had kissed her. It had been down by the lake and it wasn't anything serious. Just a goodbye kiss after their sixth year until he saw her again at the Burrow in the beginning of August. That had been a long summer, no doubt about it, and she couldn't have been happier to return to school. Seeing her friends made her day brighten.
Now, dreary as it seemed, she managed to gather up all her energy and drag herself back to the mansion. It was after seven in the evening and Hermione fully expected a lecture from Draco the minute she entered the house, but no such event occurred.
"Where's Draco?" she asked Hilda as she threw her jacket over the back of a kitchen chair. Grabbing a carrot stick from the vegetable tray the cook always prepared with dinner, Hermione straddled the chair where she threw her jacket and stared at Hilda.
The cleaning lady stopped wiping the counter, looking confused. "I don't know," she finally replied. "He came in after work, in a terribly bad mood, but what else is new? Anyway, he muttered something about having to see his father immediately."
"Wonder what Lucius wants?" Hermione mused, chewing softly on the carrot stick. If Lucius was going to try and butt into their lives again, Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
"I don't think it was so much his choice," Hilda said quietly, referring to Lucius Malfoy. "His son seemed rather insistent on speaking with him no matter what the circumstances were."
Hermione nodded slowly before standing up. " Thanks," she muttered to Hilda. "Please tell the others that I will wait until Draco is home before having supper." She fled upstairs to her bedroom, inhaling the lemony scent that breezed through the room. She sat on the bed heavily, wondering what was so important with Lucius that Draco would miss a chance to reprimand Hermione. Finding herself incredibly bored, she began flipping through one of Lily's diaries to pass the time. She read all about Lily's detailed descriptions of their wacky Muggle neighbours and re-read baby Harry's journey through toddler-age. Before she knew it, almost an hour had passed and she heard heavy footsteps banging up the staircase.
"Damn it!" Draco entered the room so forcefully that all of Hermione's thoughts about how he would act towards her after the night before flew out the window. "Damn him to hell!" he cursed again.
"What?" Hermione sat up on her knees on the bed, eager to hear why Draco was so mad at a certain person that Hermione would bet was Lucius Malfoy.
Draco suddenly seemed to notice that she was in the room. "Nothing," he muttered quickly, staring in the mirror on the wall. "Nothing at all." His suddenly cheerful façade made Hermione shake her head.
"Nice try," she coaxed, "but seriously, what's wrong?"
"Just a bad day," Draco replied. "But I'm starved now. When are we eating?"
