Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I own the North family and any new
person I may mention in this chapter.
I want to thank my betas, Lulu and Melody, thanks for putting up with me you guys! Oh, and thanks to every one of you reading this story, you guys are the best! Please review and enjoy, this will be the longest chapter I've ever written!
Chapter 10
The next few days went by so fast, many at Hogwarts weren't sure that the days passing were real, even the teachers seemed to think that it was going by fast.
Hermione had taken her potions diligently until Christmas day. They were leaving for home, and everyone at school was going. Hogwarts had never been so quiet as it was then during the winter season.
Hermione and Draco had kept it a secret that they were becoming more than friends, but to anyone who had really good perception, their façade was all for not because it was obvious then. Harry could tell what was going on, but he didn't say anything. He let them have their happiness, even if that happiness wasn't a full-blown relationship. . . they were more like friends that kissed every once in a while. But it was a good thing because one by one, Hermione's flashbacks began disappearing.
Hermione had a secret of her own, as her present to Harry, they were going to go to a special place because he deserved it. She had made the full arrangements a couple days before break. She was always borrowing Hedwig and refused to tell anyone about the letters and such that she had been receiving in return. She was going to use a blindfold on Harry after they got off the train and on their way to where she was going to drive them. . . but she never even gave the slightest hint as to where. She was also talking to Sirius and planning things out with him as well so that things would go smoothly and no one would find out about it until the right time. She hadn't even told Draco about her special plans, just that she would owl him whenever she could and tell him how things went.
Draco had an even darker secret than he could bear. He was betrothed to some mindless twit doing her family's bidding so that they could probably have some claim on the Malfoy fortune, and her had strictly told her in his one or two letters to her that they would NOT be married and that they would act like they were in love to keep up appearances, but that was absolutely it! He hated that girl for ruining his life. Cecily North, the most horrid person he'd ever had the misfortune to know about. He couldn't tell Hermione about this, there was no way that he could bring himself to hurt her because of his father's stupidity in love and marriage. Why did his father have to hate Hermione when she came from one of the most powerful wizarding families known to mankind? He also thought that he might have heard of her mother before. . . that's what he was really going home to do was to research Hermione's mother and father. Maybe convince his father to change his mind about the marriage before it was too late and he lost Hermione forever.
The ride home was very quiet and there were no fights or outbursts that happened. They arrived at Platform nine and three quarters in what felt like no time at all. Hermione practically dragged Harry off of the train, after giving Draco a brief kiss on the cheek.
Draco hurriedly grabbed his stuff and ran off the train towards where his father would be waiting for him. He spotted him almost instantly, but not before spotting someone else whom he had not seen for a while now . . .
Hermione stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the tall figure and evil presence of her father standing near the barrier. He quickly spotted her and immediately began the trek towards her. Hermione backed behind Harry as she saw the determined stride of the man that she had hoped to never see again in her life and trembled with fear. Never had such a violent fear been instilled in her as the fear of her father and his raping and beating her.
He stopped about a meter from Harry, the look of remorse evident on his face, but Hermione did not see it.
"Hermione?" he asked tentatively.
"Y - yes daddy?" Hermione managed to choke out, never leaving the safety of Harry's shadow.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about every single thing that happened, and I understand if you don't ever want to see me again, and you never will have to after this. But I just have one thing I wanted to ask you and that is, would you please forgive me?" he asked not moving towards the sanctity of Harry's shadow, knowing that that would just provoke her more than she needed to be.
Hermione was silent for a considerable amount of time, then she drew in a very shaky breath, "I'm sorry, but I just can't, not after what you did to me, I don't know if I can ever forgive you."
"All right then, I guess I deserve that, I'll never bother you again Mione girl, I promise."
Hermione hadn't heard that nickname since she was maybe three or four years old, "What did you just call me?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You called me Mione girl, just like when I was little," she said with a single tear gliding gracefully down her cheek.
"I guess I did, well, I really must be going, I have to go to work now. Oh, this is for you it's your Christmas present, Happy Christmas," he said first amused then melancholy as he set the present on the ground in front of Harry.
"Goodbye father."
"Goodbye Hermione," he said with a voice of finality to it knowing this would be the last time that he would ever see or hear from his daughter ever again. He then turned around and walked off the platform and out of Hermione's life forever. She grabbed the present, which was carefully wrapped in paper displaying a beautiful winter scene, and tied with silver ribbon.
She would wait to open up the last present she would ever receive from her old life.
~*::-::*~
Draco's father told him that he had to hurry because he was going to meet Cecily at her mansion. The odd thing about her home was that it was not in a city but rather on its own away from any city or town in England.
They began the journey there, Draco not knowing what to expect; Lucius knowing that something great was coming. Lucius 'knew' that his son had exchanged many letters and the young couple had grown quite fond of each other (even though the truth is quite the opposite.) They pulled into a driveway and Lucius told Draco to wait in the limousine as he went inside to discuss things with Lord North.
~*::-::*~
Cecily pulled her dappled mare to a halt with a sharp tug on the bridle that brought the animal to an instant halt. Slipping to the ground with a careless grace, she tossed the reins to a short stable boy who led the exhausted mare toward the stable. If anyone had ventured to suggest that she had been cruel to the animal, Cecily North would have been incredulous. "But it's my horse," she would probably have said.
A tall platinum blonde boy was stepping out of a limousine in front of the wide steps that led into the boxy mansion. As she advanced, the boy turned, and she called out, "Draco!" and a quick smile touched her lips as she ran forward to greet him.
"Cecily!" Draco took her hands, and acted as though he was desperately in love with her in the off chance that his or her parents were actually watching. Finally he said, "You're lovely in the morning!" (he had seen someone listening to them so he kicked it up and so did she.)
"Morning! It's almost noon!"
"Well . . . you're even more beautiful at high noon!" he grinned. 'This is ridiculous, we hate each other . . . the only reason were doing this is to get our parents off our backs, and I want to puke at the thought of calling this whore beautiful,' he thought.
'The only reason we're even being civilized is because of that deal we made so that we could try to get some way out of this so I can marry who I want . . . but damn, he's hot though, maybe this arranged marriage has it's upside . . .' Cecily thought.
"Come inside. I demand to know why you've stayed away so long. I warn you that I've an unerring ear for a romantic lie, so you may as well confess to all your indiscretions!"
As she pulled him into a stately foyer, he said, "I've thought about you since we parted yesterday." 'Gag, wretch . . . I think I'm going to be sick!'
"And you came only to see me, didn't you? Nothing to do with the Dark Lord or his Death Eaters or any business?"
Draco faltered slightly, "W - well, to be truthful . . ." 'I only came over because my father is a prick and made me come to fuck your brains out so that our arranged marriage can be finalized, but anything to stall for time . . .'
Cecily threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, you perfidious creature! Caught in the act! And I thought you were such a romantic suitor!"
"I trust to prove myself just so - but I do have to see your father at once."
"Tomorrow," Cecily said firmly. "Tonight you'll escort me to the Death Eater's Initiation ball! After all we have only a short while before we become Death Eaters!" she said loudly. "You there, show Mr. Malfoy to the guest house and make certain he's taken care of!" 'He'd better be at his peak performance level tonight if we are to eventually make love tonight . . . Oh! God I can't wait to fuck him senseless! He's so sexy, he must be a sex God!'
"Cecily . . ." 'Dear God, haven't I had enough shit to shovel out for one day? But no, I have to dance with the bitch and act like I'm in love with her in front of all the Death Eaters and their children.'
"We'll leave at seven, Draco." She swept out of the room and Draco followed the house elf out of the house.
For the ball Draco wore elaborate black dress robes with silver clasps studded with emeralds, and was given a rose to give his date. The rose was the color of blood with black tips and was far too much, but he shrugged and tucked it away as he walked across the garden to meet Cecily.
Cecily chose a very tight fancy dress gown that had a deliciously, low-cut, v-neck, halter-styled top that dipped down to the waist of the gown and had translucent nude material, studded with delicate diamonds, just barely holding it together in between. The gown was midnight blue (on the bottom) fading into midnight black (at the top) and looked like it was flooded with stars. The skirt of the gown was very puffy and when she walked or the wind ruffled it looked as though it was flowing water. The dress was stunning and it even made Cecily look only just slightly pretty, but too plain for the exquisite dress she inhabited. Hermione, now she would look like a Goddess in that divine creation with her perfect figure, and long, silky, brown hair and perfectly tanned complexion and those hazel eyes that were so mysterious to those that didn't know how to read them. He wished he'd be able to see her in that dress, but that would never come to pass. He knew he had to at least seem like he thought Cecily was beautiful and he had an idea, "I didn't think it possible for anyone to . . . outshine your beauty, Cecily, but I fear it has come to pass." 'And been passed since the dawn of time by every female to ever have existed and then some . . .'
She shot him a smoky glance and asked in an icy tone, "And who has eclipsed my beauty, may I ask?"
Draco made an elaborate gesture with his hand, sweeping it downward to indicate his elaborate dress, and said, "Me! I feel like a tailor's ape - fool of a coxcomb with silver and emeralds!" 'And not to mention I'm dead sexy compared to any glimmer of hope you could ever possibly have in a century or for even eternity because you are an ugly whore that's ten times as bad as Pansy!'
Her lips curved into a smile, and she said, "You look well enough." She took in his lean athletic form, the dashing debonair smile, and the silver blonde hair that framed his masculine face. 'Oh God, I just want to fuck you right here, right now . . .' Then she added, "You are a handsome guy Draco - you're most likely to charm all of the young women here, I fear."
'Damn straight . . .'
The ball was a blaze of splendor that Draco could afterward remember as some sort of twisted nightmare of Heaven. He brushed shoulders with the demigods of the dark side, and was amazed - and somewhat shocked - to find out how strictly human some were. The infamous mistress of Voldemort himself, fabled like Helen for her fabulous beauty, looked well enough at a distance of twenty feet under artificial light, but Draco was repelled to discover that she had apparently never discovered bathing. "Scratch me!" He exclaimed under his breath to Cecily. "But she smells like a hog in a ditch!"
She laughed for a long time, bit her lip and drew back. There was the glimmer of tears in her eyes from her laughter - the first Draco had ever seen, and in the softest voice he'd ever heard her use, she whispered, "Thank you, Draco. I - I'll treasure that!" Then she swept her hand across her eyes and with another laugh, pulled him to the floor and made him dance with her . . . even though he'd rather give up quidditch forever than to be within the same planet as her . . . though he did have to admit that she was kind of fun to be around . . . and when she smiled like a child with her eyes lit, she actually looked kind of nice . . . sort of, but not really.
~*::-::*~
Hermione finally stopped her car at the unknown destination and said rather loudly as if cuing something, "All right, you can take off your blindfold now!"
Harry untied his blindfold and smiled at the sight that greeted him, he was at the Burrow, and the whole Weasley family, Hermione, Lupin, and Sirius were there in front of him.
All of them had known that Harry greatly missed all the people he called family and wanted nothing more than to be with them all for Christmas, and so they all had decided to come together for Christmas just for him. "Happy Christmas Harry," said all twelve in unison.
Harry was so happy he didn't know what to say other than, "Thanks you guys, you don't know what this means to me."
I want to thank my betas, Lulu and Melody, thanks for putting up with me you guys! Oh, and thanks to every one of you reading this story, you guys are the best! Please review and enjoy, this will be the longest chapter I've ever written!
Chapter 10
The next few days went by so fast, many at Hogwarts weren't sure that the days passing were real, even the teachers seemed to think that it was going by fast.
Hermione had taken her potions diligently until Christmas day. They were leaving for home, and everyone at school was going. Hogwarts had never been so quiet as it was then during the winter season.
Hermione and Draco had kept it a secret that they were becoming more than friends, but to anyone who had really good perception, their façade was all for not because it was obvious then. Harry could tell what was going on, but he didn't say anything. He let them have their happiness, even if that happiness wasn't a full-blown relationship. . . they were more like friends that kissed every once in a while. But it was a good thing because one by one, Hermione's flashbacks began disappearing.
Hermione had a secret of her own, as her present to Harry, they were going to go to a special place because he deserved it. She had made the full arrangements a couple days before break. She was always borrowing Hedwig and refused to tell anyone about the letters and such that she had been receiving in return. She was going to use a blindfold on Harry after they got off the train and on their way to where she was going to drive them. . . but she never even gave the slightest hint as to where. She was also talking to Sirius and planning things out with him as well so that things would go smoothly and no one would find out about it until the right time. She hadn't even told Draco about her special plans, just that she would owl him whenever she could and tell him how things went.
Draco had an even darker secret than he could bear. He was betrothed to some mindless twit doing her family's bidding so that they could probably have some claim on the Malfoy fortune, and her had strictly told her in his one or two letters to her that they would NOT be married and that they would act like they were in love to keep up appearances, but that was absolutely it! He hated that girl for ruining his life. Cecily North, the most horrid person he'd ever had the misfortune to know about. He couldn't tell Hermione about this, there was no way that he could bring himself to hurt her because of his father's stupidity in love and marriage. Why did his father have to hate Hermione when she came from one of the most powerful wizarding families known to mankind? He also thought that he might have heard of her mother before. . . that's what he was really going home to do was to research Hermione's mother and father. Maybe convince his father to change his mind about the marriage before it was too late and he lost Hermione forever.
The ride home was very quiet and there were no fights or outbursts that happened. They arrived at Platform nine and three quarters in what felt like no time at all. Hermione practically dragged Harry off of the train, after giving Draco a brief kiss on the cheek.
Draco hurriedly grabbed his stuff and ran off the train towards where his father would be waiting for him. He spotted him almost instantly, but not before spotting someone else whom he had not seen for a while now . . .
Hermione stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the tall figure and evil presence of her father standing near the barrier. He quickly spotted her and immediately began the trek towards her. Hermione backed behind Harry as she saw the determined stride of the man that she had hoped to never see again in her life and trembled with fear. Never had such a violent fear been instilled in her as the fear of her father and his raping and beating her.
He stopped about a meter from Harry, the look of remorse evident on his face, but Hermione did not see it.
"Hermione?" he asked tentatively.
"Y - yes daddy?" Hermione managed to choke out, never leaving the safety of Harry's shadow.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about every single thing that happened, and I understand if you don't ever want to see me again, and you never will have to after this. But I just have one thing I wanted to ask you and that is, would you please forgive me?" he asked not moving towards the sanctity of Harry's shadow, knowing that that would just provoke her more than she needed to be.
Hermione was silent for a considerable amount of time, then she drew in a very shaky breath, "I'm sorry, but I just can't, not after what you did to me, I don't know if I can ever forgive you."
"All right then, I guess I deserve that, I'll never bother you again Mione girl, I promise."
Hermione hadn't heard that nickname since she was maybe three or four years old, "What did you just call me?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You called me Mione girl, just like when I was little," she said with a single tear gliding gracefully down her cheek.
"I guess I did, well, I really must be going, I have to go to work now. Oh, this is for you it's your Christmas present, Happy Christmas," he said first amused then melancholy as he set the present on the ground in front of Harry.
"Goodbye father."
"Goodbye Hermione," he said with a voice of finality to it knowing this would be the last time that he would ever see or hear from his daughter ever again. He then turned around and walked off the platform and out of Hermione's life forever. She grabbed the present, which was carefully wrapped in paper displaying a beautiful winter scene, and tied with silver ribbon.
She would wait to open up the last present she would ever receive from her old life.
~*::-::*~
Draco's father told him that he had to hurry because he was going to meet Cecily at her mansion. The odd thing about her home was that it was not in a city but rather on its own away from any city or town in England.
They began the journey there, Draco not knowing what to expect; Lucius knowing that something great was coming. Lucius 'knew' that his son had exchanged many letters and the young couple had grown quite fond of each other (even though the truth is quite the opposite.) They pulled into a driveway and Lucius told Draco to wait in the limousine as he went inside to discuss things with Lord North.
~*::-::*~
Cecily pulled her dappled mare to a halt with a sharp tug on the bridle that brought the animal to an instant halt. Slipping to the ground with a careless grace, she tossed the reins to a short stable boy who led the exhausted mare toward the stable. If anyone had ventured to suggest that she had been cruel to the animal, Cecily North would have been incredulous. "But it's my horse," she would probably have said.
A tall platinum blonde boy was stepping out of a limousine in front of the wide steps that led into the boxy mansion. As she advanced, the boy turned, and she called out, "Draco!" and a quick smile touched her lips as she ran forward to greet him.
"Cecily!" Draco took her hands, and acted as though he was desperately in love with her in the off chance that his or her parents were actually watching. Finally he said, "You're lovely in the morning!" (he had seen someone listening to them so he kicked it up and so did she.)
"Morning! It's almost noon!"
"Well . . . you're even more beautiful at high noon!" he grinned. 'This is ridiculous, we hate each other . . . the only reason were doing this is to get our parents off our backs, and I want to puke at the thought of calling this whore beautiful,' he thought.
'The only reason we're even being civilized is because of that deal we made so that we could try to get some way out of this so I can marry who I want . . . but damn, he's hot though, maybe this arranged marriage has it's upside . . .' Cecily thought.
"Come inside. I demand to know why you've stayed away so long. I warn you that I've an unerring ear for a romantic lie, so you may as well confess to all your indiscretions!"
As she pulled him into a stately foyer, he said, "I've thought about you since we parted yesterday." 'Gag, wretch . . . I think I'm going to be sick!'
"And you came only to see me, didn't you? Nothing to do with the Dark Lord or his Death Eaters or any business?"
Draco faltered slightly, "W - well, to be truthful . . ." 'I only came over because my father is a prick and made me come to fuck your brains out so that our arranged marriage can be finalized, but anything to stall for time . . .'
Cecily threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, you perfidious creature! Caught in the act! And I thought you were such a romantic suitor!"
"I trust to prove myself just so - but I do have to see your father at once."
"Tomorrow," Cecily said firmly. "Tonight you'll escort me to the Death Eater's Initiation ball! After all we have only a short while before we become Death Eaters!" she said loudly. "You there, show Mr. Malfoy to the guest house and make certain he's taken care of!" 'He'd better be at his peak performance level tonight if we are to eventually make love tonight . . . Oh! God I can't wait to fuck him senseless! He's so sexy, he must be a sex God!'
"Cecily . . ." 'Dear God, haven't I had enough shit to shovel out for one day? But no, I have to dance with the bitch and act like I'm in love with her in front of all the Death Eaters and their children.'
"We'll leave at seven, Draco." She swept out of the room and Draco followed the house elf out of the house.
For the ball Draco wore elaborate black dress robes with silver clasps studded with emeralds, and was given a rose to give his date. The rose was the color of blood with black tips and was far too much, but he shrugged and tucked it away as he walked across the garden to meet Cecily.
Cecily chose a very tight fancy dress gown that had a deliciously, low-cut, v-neck, halter-styled top that dipped down to the waist of the gown and had translucent nude material, studded with delicate diamonds, just barely holding it together in between. The gown was midnight blue (on the bottom) fading into midnight black (at the top) and looked like it was flooded with stars. The skirt of the gown was very puffy and when she walked or the wind ruffled it looked as though it was flowing water. The dress was stunning and it even made Cecily look only just slightly pretty, but too plain for the exquisite dress she inhabited. Hermione, now she would look like a Goddess in that divine creation with her perfect figure, and long, silky, brown hair and perfectly tanned complexion and those hazel eyes that were so mysterious to those that didn't know how to read them. He wished he'd be able to see her in that dress, but that would never come to pass. He knew he had to at least seem like he thought Cecily was beautiful and he had an idea, "I didn't think it possible for anyone to . . . outshine your beauty, Cecily, but I fear it has come to pass." 'And been passed since the dawn of time by every female to ever have existed and then some . . .'
She shot him a smoky glance and asked in an icy tone, "And who has eclipsed my beauty, may I ask?"
Draco made an elaborate gesture with his hand, sweeping it downward to indicate his elaborate dress, and said, "Me! I feel like a tailor's ape - fool of a coxcomb with silver and emeralds!" 'And not to mention I'm dead sexy compared to any glimmer of hope you could ever possibly have in a century or for even eternity because you are an ugly whore that's ten times as bad as Pansy!'
Her lips curved into a smile, and she said, "You look well enough." She took in his lean athletic form, the dashing debonair smile, and the silver blonde hair that framed his masculine face. 'Oh God, I just want to fuck you right here, right now . . .' Then she added, "You are a handsome guy Draco - you're most likely to charm all of the young women here, I fear."
'Damn straight . . .'
The ball was a blaze of splendor that Draco could afterward remember as some sort of twisted nightmare of Heaven. He brushed shoulders with the demigods of the dark side, and was amazed - and somewhat shocked - to find out how strictly human some were. The infamous mistress of Voldemort himself, fabled like Helen for her fabulous beauty, looked well enough at a distance of twenty feet under artificial light, but Draco was repelled to discover that she had apparently never discovered bathing. "Scratch me!" He exclaimed under his breath to Cecily. "But she smells like a hog in a ditch!"
She laughed for a long time, bit her lip and drew back. There was the glimmer of tears in her eyes from her laughter - the first Draco had ever seen, and in the softest voice he'd ever heard her use, she whispered, "Thank you, Draco. I - I'll treasure that!" Then she swept her hand across her eyes and with another laugh, pulled him to the floor and made him dance with her . . . even though he'd rather give up quidditch forever than to be within the same planet as her . . . though he did have to admit that she was kind of fun to be around . . . and when she smiled like a child with her eyes lit, she actually looked kind of nice . . . sort of, but not really.
~*::-::*~
Hermione finally stopped her car at the unknown destination and said rather loudly as if cuing something, "All right, you can take off your blindfold now!"
Harry untied his blindfold and smiled at the sight that greeted him, he was at the Burrow, and the whole Weasley family, Hermione, Lupin, and Sirius were there in front of him.
All of them had known that Harry greatly missed all the people he called family and wanted nothing more than to be with them all for Christmas, and so they all had decided to come together for Christmas just for him. "Happy Christmas Harry," said all twelve in unison.
Harry was so happy he didn't know what to say other than, "Thanks you guys, you don't know what this means to me."