Part Two:
disclaimer in Part One.
Sirius Black was immediately on his guard the moment the portkey dropped them on the outskirts of the Malfoy estate. While, yes, Lucius had publically renounced the Dark Lord, had even worked with the Order of the Phoenix to defeat Voldemorte, Sirius still did not trust the pale wizard. "You okay Harry?" He asked his just turned seventeen-year-old godson.
"Sirius, I'm fine. I'm always fine," Harry answered, lips curling up in a small smile. Sirius's heart broke at the emptiness in Harry's eyes.
The past six years had, quite literally, been Hell for the Boy-Who-Lived. The first three years of his school career at Beaubaxton was spent thwarting Voldemorte's many attempts at revival. His fourth saw the rebirth of Voldemorte, while the fifth gave rise to a disturbing prophecy about how Harry and Voldemorte would fight...to the death. The past year the fight to the death occurred, seeing the loss of Harry's best friend, Jon Mongeau.
It was Harry who had quietly suggested a move. Sirius could not withhold such a small request to the young wizard.
"Miss Fleur, don't you?" Sirius joked, ruffling the tall boy's already mussed hair.
Inhaling sharply, Harry moved away from Sirius's hand. "We broke up," he flatly said. "She doesn't need a murdering fiend like myself in her life."
Before Sirius could further question him, Harry moved to the heavy steel doorknocker and pounded it against the antique mahogany door, with a bit more force then necessary. His breath caught in his throat at the fragile looking girl who, impossibly it seemed, opened the heavy door. "Hello, you must be Harry and Mr. Black," she politely said, her voice practically screaming with good-breeding and class.
"H-hi," Harry stuttered. The girl had meticulously perfect sable brown ringlets that fell to her waist with sparkling honey-brown eyes. "Are you Hermione?" he asked, incredulously. He had expected a mousy little bookworm. Not this near-perfect goddess to be his tutor.
Shaking his head at the young charge's reaction to the admittedly beautiful teenaged girl, Sirius reminded himself that this was, for all accounts, Lucius Malfoy's daughter. Which meant she was to be as trusted at her stepfather and stepbrother were. "Good afternoon, Miss Granger. I hope we're not too late?"
Hermione fought the urge to allow her lower jaw to drop. All the pictures of Harry Potter had shown...well for lack of a better word, a weakling, too cowardly for even his picture to stand tall. Real-life Harry Potter was much better looking. And definitely not a coward. 'This will be the most interesting summer. Ever,' she thought, allowing the corners of her lips to rise slightly. "Oh, of course not, Mr. Black! The house elves are just now setting everything out," she informed them, "Oh, wow, where are my manners? Come in, come in!"
Opening the door a little wider to allow the two very tall, very muscular men inside the Malfoy manor, Hermione led them into the sitting room, smirking at the memory of Padma Patil's flushed face when Hermione discovered her in an...intimate position with Draco. "Won't you please sit down?" she asked, gracefully gesturing to the comfortable chairs.
Neither man sat until Hermione did. She smiled inwardly at the gentlemanly ways. "Well, I have to say, Harry, I'm very impressed with your article in Witch Weekly."
Harry flushed, an action that usually annoyed Hermione, but, for some reason, was strangely endearing on Harry.
"I on the other hand, thought it was disgusting." Hermione's stomach dropped as Draco sauntered into the sitting room. "I mean, what self-respecting wizard wouldn't want a decent shag every now and again? Bugger this 'waiting for marriage' bull shit!"
Hermione sighed. "Mr. Black, Harry, please let me introduce you to my brother, Draco Malfoy. Draco, you remember Mr. Black? And this is Harry Potter."
"A pleasure, as always, Mr. Black," Draco said, shaking the reluctant hand of Sirius.
"Draco will be a seventh-year at Hogwarts too, Harry," Hermione informed him. "Luckily, he's in Slytherin. They normally keep to their dungeons. They're more comfortable there."
Sirius and Harry watched, uncomfortable, as the two stepsiblings exchanged looks of malice. With a huff, Draco spun on his heel and left the room. Hermione closed her eyes and exhaled. "I'm so sorry about that. I didn't mean to make you so uncomfortable...Draco and I, well; we have a tenuous relationship, to say the very least. I'm sure you've heard about his terrible reputation."
Briefly nodding, Sirius agreed with Hermione. "Don't worry, Miss Granger, we understand," he said, accepting her apology.
"What house did you say that you were in?" Harry asked, curious.
"Oh, me? I'm in Gryfindor," Hermione proudly said, although she was fighting the urge to roll her eyes. This was obviously going to be a lot easier than she had originally suspected. All men were the same; all they cared about was where they were going to get some from next.
The next couple hours Hermione spent lying through her teeth about how "enjoyable" living in Gryfindor was and how "mentally stimulating" their academic schedules were. Although, the way that Harry had blushed at the word 'stimulating' was quite fun, for Hermione.
She finally showed her two guests out of the door, with a promise to Harry to owl him for a tour of Diagon Alley and the first tutoring session. "Finally," she said, stripping off her very conservative robes, to show a very classy, but very scandalous Muggle outfit underneath.
"So…? What are your odds?" Draco asked, slightly scaring her.
"Damnit Draco!" Hermione swore, before allowing a sinister smile to cross her features. "Well, big brother, I think I will be the proud owner of a Tuscany villa before the end of this summer."
Strolling past Draco, Hermione hummed a little tune to herself on her way up to her lavish suite of rooms and flopped onto her bed. With a little wave of her wand, her wireless turned on and music filled her room. "Accio quill," she said absently, grabbing the writing device. "Accio parchment."
Nibbling on her lower lip, Hermione concentrated as she wrote a quick note to Harry Potter.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sirius and Harry quietly opened the door to number 12 Grimmauld Place, not wanting to rouse the slightly-psychotic portrait of Sirius's mother. Once past the entryway, the two men both started to speak.
"Well? What do you think of England?" Sirius asked, turning to his still naïve godson.
Smiling, Harry remembered Hermione. "I think I'll like it here," he said, "I can't wait until school begins."
Sirius watched Harry out of the corner of his eye. Hermione Granger was very beautiful and polite, but something just struck him as being false in the girl. She had, after all, spent the past four years of her life as a Malfoy, a wizarding family known for its deviousness.
From what he had learned from Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Hermione was the model student, top of her class and very well liked. She had never stepped a foot out of line and was very intelligent; so much so that she was offered the opportunity to graduate a year early, an opportunity she decline in favor of a student-teacher position in advanced Charms.
Her stepbrother, Draco Malfoy, however, was another story completely. Devious and snobbish, he represented the Malfoy stereotype perfectly. While all of his teachers agreed that the young man was very intelligent, the biggest complaint was that his intelligence was more often than not used for malicious purposes.
An unfamiliar eagle owl interrupted Sirius's thoughts about the Malfoy-Granger family. "Oh wow!" Harry exclaimed, looking up from his newly delivered letter, "Its from Herm-I mean, Miss Granger, she's already invited me to meet her in front of the Leaky Cauldron at noon tomorrow to go to Diagon Alley."
Harry smiled to himself. School hadn't even started yet, but already he was making friends. The fact that his new friend happened to be Head Girl and beautiful would help him take his mind off of things, mainly the past year. He smiled to himself. Yes, moving back to England was a good idea. Still smiling, Harry excused himself and left for his room.
Sirius smiled, happy that his young charge was, for the moment, at peace.
Yes, he still had his reservations about the Granger girl, but, for the time being at least, what was the harm in Harry becoming friends with the girl?