Chapter Ten

When Draco and Hermione arrived at the Malfoy Manor about an hour later- they had decided to take a car instead of apparating- they were greeted at the door by Narcissa Malfoy. She had a house elf take their coats, and then led them into the estate's formal dining room. Hermione looked over her shoulder at the small creature, barely balancing under the large coats. Hermione felt a pang of sympathy for the house elf, who would most likely be enslaved for his or her entire life. As they took their seats at the table, Draco asked his mother, "Where's father?"

"Lucius got an owl a little while ago and will join us in a few minutes," replied Narcissa. "We'll wait to eat until he comes in."

The next few minutes passed pleasantly, with Narcissa asking casual questions about their life and Draco's job. Hermione had grown to like Draco's mother, who she found to be enjoyable to talk to and not the least bit arrogant. Narcissa had just asked them about a business trip that Draco was going on to Greece, when Lucius Malfoy walked swiftly into the room.

Mr. Malfoy was wearing his usual luxuriously styled black robes, and had the same refined grace about him that was always there. However, tonight there was a different look in his frozen gray eyes. It looked as if he were trying hard to maintain his cool; something that Hermione had never thought took much effort. She thought that all the Malfoys had something in their DNA that made them calm and collected in all situations. The way his lips were pursed thinly, as if he were holding in an outburst of nasty language, made Hermione nervous.

Lucius swept to his place at the dining table and sat down smoothly into the high-backed chair. He surveyed the steaming food before him with contemptuous eyes, before picking the silverware and starting to eat. He made no effort to start a conversation over dinner, so the other three ate in silence also.

Hermione looked down as she ate, feeling immensely uncomfortable, and not knowing what had caused the room's change of mood. She hoped Lucius wasn't angry about the discussion from the last time she and Draco had been at Malfoy manor. But as that had just been a small disagreement, she found it hard to believe that he would still be a holding a grudge after a week. If that wasn't the reason, what was it? Hermione thought hard, trying to remember if Draco had mentioned anything about having a fight with his father. He hadn't.

After they had all finished eating, Hermione and Draco waited for Lucius to say something. After meals he usually asked them to go with him and Narcissa to the study, where they had drinks and talked. However, this time no drink or conversation invitation came. Lucius, who had been previously looking at a tapestry hanging along one of the dining room's walls, now shifted his gaze to Draco. The long awaited conversation started slowly, with Lucius asking his son about their trip to Greece. "When do you leave?"

"We leave in a week, father," said Draco, who seemed to be relieved that the stony silence had been broken.

Lucius inclined his head slowly, and Hermione could tell he was thinking hard, though not about their trip to Greece. Draco looked at Hermione, shrugged slightly when his father wasn't looking and gave her a confused look. Hermione returned a small smile to him, but she was also confused. Lucius Malfoy was not the type of man to hold his opinions back, which was what he was obviously doing.

Draco seemed to decide that any sort of small talk would be preferable to the quietly cold atmosphere surrounding them. "Mother told me you received an owl a short while ago," he said conversationally.

"Yes," said Lucius, raising his head and looking directly into Draco's eyes with something bordering on dislike and disbelief. Hermione had the impression that Lucius was challenging his son to ask him about it. "I did."

"Was it from the Ministry?" Draco seemed unruffled by the intense glare his father had fixed on him. Hermione thought that if Lucius had been looking at her like that, she would have the strong temptation to crawl under the table.

"It was from an old friend," said Lucius icily. "But yes, he does work at the Ministry."

Draco looked as if he had made up his mind that any further questions would be intruding his father's privacy. When he remained quiet for over a minute, Lucius's gaze flickered quickly from Draco to Hermione. The icy gray eyes of Mr. Malfoy, both so alike and so different from Draco's, connected to Hermione's eyes for a split second. When they darted away again, Hermione was left with the impression that Lucius's look had held a deep amount of hatred. But because the glare had been so quick, she pushed away that thought and sat silently, looking down once more.

Servants cleared the fancy golden plates and champagne flutes from the tables, which distracted Hermione momentarily from the look Lucius had given her. She wondered why the Malfoys bothered to hire human servants when they already had servants who were enslaved and couldn't leave. Now that Hermione thought about it, she noticed some haunting parallels between a house elf's situation and her own. Repressing a shiver, she ignored that thought and followed the others into the Hall.

Pulling herself away from her unsettling thoughts, she heard Draco make an excuse for them to leave the Manor earlier than usual. Narcissa seemed both relieved that they were going and apprehensive about being left with her husband in a foul mood. Lucius Malfoy just looked coldly at his son, as if trying to see through him. Draco's polite smile faltered slightly, and he hastily (but still with the aforementioned grace that was bestowed upon his whole family) took his and Hermione's coats from a servant. He gave his mother a soft kiss on the cheek before leading Hermione out of Malfoy Manor.

On the way home in a muggle car that Draco had bought a few short weeks ago, they sat in silence once more. Hermione's mind was buzzing, much like it did when she was given a particular problem and became intent on solving it. She started to open her mouth and talk, but all of a sudden a command formed in her mind, an order Draco had unconsciously given her.

This had happened several times since the wedding, but it never failed to surprise her when it occurred. Of course she knew what it was. It really wasn't that shocking, when she thought about it. After all, didn't the magical bonds between them make her comply with every one of his commands? And Hermione had come to the realization that orders formed in his mind but not spoken were still orders that she had to obey.

When she had first asked Draco about it, whether he was consciously giving her orders through his thoughts, he had been astonished that he could actually do that. Hermione had explained about the several times when he had been at work and she had sensed things he wanted her to do by the time he came home. He had been thrilled, especially when he realized that he could order her around whenever he liked, no matter where he was and whom he was with. While Draco was usually a very respectable person, she had discovered that he enjoyed, in a rather depraved and annoying way, her subservience to him. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear any of her thoughts, so she couldn't even protest mentally when he ordered her around.

So, when Hermione heard the distant echoing of his voice in the back of her mind, telling her to be quiet until they got home, she complied reluctantly. The silence was getting to her, and she wondered if Draco would get mad if she turned on the automobile's radio. Hermione looked down at the tiny knobs and buttons, trying to discern which turned the music on. Because she had taken Muggle Studies at school, she knew what a car radio was and how to work it, but couldn't remember which buttons were which.

Thinking that she would try the large black knob at the right, she reached a finger out to turn it. When her fingertip was about to come into contact with the cool metal, she felt Draco's hand over hers, and she sensed him adding 'Don't make any noise, and that includes the radio' to his earlier command. Hermione gave him a grumpy look, and leaned back in her seat. She tried to play a song in her head, but at the moment her thoughts were devoid of any music.

[A/N: Okay, there is chapter nine. Sorry about the angst-y ending. I didn't mean for it to stop with Hermione so depressed. Extra points to whoever can figure out why Lucius was so pissed. He He He. Previously I said that there would be 12 chapters, but I think that after I've tortured you for so long that I will combine the last two and make it end at chapter eleven. Because if I didn't, you would have to read the mother of all cliffhangers. Seriously. I felt terrible writing it, but I did. However, now I'm thinking that I'll be nice to all my great readers/reviewers and not make them suffer anymore. So that means that the next chapter will be the end of the story and is. dun dun dun twice as long as the normal chapters! I knew that would make all of you jump for joy since you've all been yelling at me about that. Lol. Oh, one more thing before I let you go and review this chapter [hint hint]: Please don't ask me to post the next chapter immediately, even though it's already written. I need to have it a few more days so that I can get at least the first part of the sequel done. Well, I think that's it. Tell me in a review what you think of this chapter and humor me with your predictions. He He He.]