Hermione entered Malfoy Manor and immediately hated it. It seemed so dull and dark, full of Dark Magic, no doubt. She looked around and noticed that she was in the Malfoy's lounge. It was huge and Hermione couldn't help gaping. She shut her mouth when her mother shot her an evil glare.
"Ah, Vanessa, Hermione, so good of you to make it" Narcissa said happily, making her way into the lounge "Hermione, Draco's upstairs in his room, you can go and see him if you want. His room is the third room on the right." Hermione felt like saying that seeing Malfoy was the last thing on this earth that she wanted to do, but she bit her tongue on seeing her mother staring at her expectantly.
"Uh, th-thank you, Mrs. Malfoy."
"No problem dearie, oh, and you can either call me Narcissa or mother, seeing as you're going to be a part of our family soon" she added. Hermione thought she was going to faint. Every single time someone brought up the fact that she would soon be a part of the Malfoy family and married to Draco Malfoy, she felt sick.
And what was with Narcissa calling her dearie? That's what Mrs. Weasley used to call her for goodness' sake! Was Narcissa actually being nice to her?
Hermione sighed in defeat as she realized she would most definitely be staying with the Malfoy's until September 1st. There would be no point in attempting to avoid Draco, because this was where he lived.
She slowly made her ascent upstairs to Draco's room, where she knocked on the door three times before entering. After all, who knew what Malfoy was doing?
The voice of Draco Malfoy called out "Come in" and Hermione slowly entered.
"Oh, it's you." He sounded disgusted on seeing Hermione there "Why couldn't you have pretended to be sick or something?" he asked, then returned to what he was doing. Hermione's jaw dropped. How rude!
She looked closely to what Malfoy was doing and saw that he was doing his Potions assignment. Hermione grinned inwardly to herself; she'd already done all of her homework for the summer.
"So, Malfoy, doing your Potions assignment at the last minute? Tut tut." Hermione pretended to sound disapproving, while her voice was filled with amusement.
"Sod off, Granger!"
"I'm not Hermione Granger anymore, Malfoy! I'm Hermione Malomfry!"
"Yeah, yeah, Malomfry, whatever" he muttered to himself as he carried on doing his homework "Get out of my room Malomfry, can't you see that I'm busy?" he snapped.
"No, because I'm enjoying watching you getting frustrated" Hermione retorted.
"Fuck off!" he snapped once again as he rose from his chair and strode over to Hermione. He grabbed her by the arm and shoved her outside of his room "Now get lost, Malomfry! You're not wanted here!" and with that said, he slammed the door in her face.
"Humph, how rude!" Hermione muttered to herself "but then again, it's Malfoy, he's always rude, so I should be used to it by now"
She made her way downstairs and Narcissa looked up in surprise.
"Hermione, why aren't you with Draco?"
"I'm not wanted" she replied in annoyance.
"Oh, well, I'll just have a word—"
"No, it's fine. He's doing his Potions essay, so he's busy. It's fine"
"Ah, Hermione, I think I should let you know now, we have magical barriers up around our house, which allows Draco to use magic outside of school. You can use magic outside of school as well now that you're here, if you wish"
"Well, thank you Mrs.—uh, I mean, Narcissa. At least if Mal—I mean Draco attempts to hex me, I'll realize that he won't get expelled because of it."
"But of course. We need him to practice his spells. He's not doing so well with his school work at the moment … maybe you could help him!" she added brightly "You're the brightest witch in your year, you could help him"
"I don't think Mal—uh, I mean, Draco would want—"
"Nonsense! He'll be thrilled"
"Wanna bet?" Hermione murmured to herself.
"Come with me, Hermione, we'll go see Draco together" she told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards Draco's room. Hermione mentally wished that she was with Harry and Ron right now. She wished it more than anything.
"Oy! I thought I told you not to …" Draco trailed off when he saw his mother standing behind Hermione.
"Draco Malfoy, you would do well to treat Hermione with a bit more respect than what you're giving her! She's going to be your wife soon enough—" at this Hermione thought she was going to be sick "—and I've asked her to tutor you in some of the subjects that you're failing in" Draco gaped at his mother in total shock.
"Mother, you can't be serious! She—I mean—Malomfry—"
"Her name is Hermione! You two had better start calling each other by your first names or I will personally hex the both of you! Now grow up!" she snapped angrily before storming from Draco's room.
Hermione stood there, awkwardly, wondering what to do next. Draco ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"I can't believe mother told you to tutor me! There is absolutely no way that I'm allowing you to do such a thing!"
"Do you honestly think I want to tutor you?" Hermione retorted heatedly. Draco smirked.
"Most females would jump at the chance to spend time with me alone"
"Yes, well, I'm not most girls, am I?"
"Too right" Draco muttered.
"Anyway, I'll be going. I don't want to annoy you while you do your Potions essay" Hermione said with a grin "See you later Mal—I mean, Draco" At this last statement, she quickly whipped out her wand, while Malfoy wasn't looking and muttered a spell, before pocketing her wand. Maybe staying at the Malfoy's wouldn't be so bad after all!
"MALOMFRY!" Draco's yell resounded throughout the entire household. Hermione snorted into her drink, while Narcissa and Lucius were staring at Hermione in bewilderment. Draco stormed downstairs and immediately, Narcissa had to clap a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing.
Draco had spiky green hair with red and gold robes on, which resembled Gryffindor house. Hermione had hexed him while he wasn't looking! Lucius didn't look amused, in fact, he looked downright appalled. Narcissa was giggling silently, while Hermione was fighting to keep a straight face.
"Nice look, Draco" she said sweetly.
"You did this!" he snapped.
"Me?" Hermione countered innocently "I've been down here the entire time, how could I have—"
"You did this when I wasn't looking!" he said, raising his voice "How dare you!"
"I never knew you couldn't take a joke" Hermione stated, raising an eyebrow "Do you have to be serious about everything?"
"I'll get you back for this!" he yelled, "You just wait!"
"Well, I'm waiting and nothing's happening" Hermione told him, a smile playing at her lips. She'd wanted to hex Malfoy for so long that in the end, she couldn't resist, and this was the result! Anyway, Malfoy had started it the night before with humiliating her in front of her parents, it was payback! She wished she had a camera on her right at that moment!
Lucius quickly muttered the counter-curse and glared at Hermione.
"This will not happen again" he told her, looking calm, while looking threatening at the same time "because if it does, your mother will be informed" All the colour drained from Hermione's face as soon as this was said.
Draco smirked evilly at this comment.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang and one of the house elves went to answer it. Hermione watched after it disapprovingly, she still hated the treatment of house elves.
"Mr. Malfoy, sir, Mr. Simmons is here"
"Very well, send him in" The house elf immediately obeyed and a young boy of eighteen walked into the room. Hermione's jaw dropped when she saw him. He was absolutely gorgeous! He had floppy brown hair and intense blue eyes. His face was emotionless as he turned to Lucius.
"You asked for me, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes, Mr. Simmons. I need you to teach Miss. Malomfry how to duel using Dark Magic" Simmons took one look at Hermione and was stunned momentarily, before looking back to Lucius and nodding.
"Of course, sir, when would you like me to start?"
"Now, if it's possible" Simmons nodded once again.
"We've got a dueling room upstairs, you know where it is" Lucius informed him. Simmons merely nodded again and turned to Hermione.
"Miss. Malomfry, if you would be so kind as to follow me" Hermione followed him without saying anything. She was too amazed by Simmons to really say or do anything. Draco watched after them, scowling slightly.
As soon as they entered the dueling room, which seemed to be one of the biggest rooms in the entire household, Simmons grinned as he turned back to Hermione.
"Hi, the name's Ted" he told her as he took Hermione's hand and kissed it lightly. Hermione felt herself go hot in the face.
"I—I'm Her—Hermione" she stuttered.
"Nice to meet ya. Right" he said, clapping his hands together "onto practicing Dark Magic" Hermione groaned and Ted laughed.
"It's not that bad!"
"Listen, Mr. Simmons, I—"
"Oh, drop the formalities, will you? When we're not in the presence of the Malfoy's, just call me Ted. I prefer that, than Mr. Simmons!"
Hermione giggled slightly, then stopped herself. What on earth was she doing?
"So, to become a Death Eater, one of the spells that you need to know is how to defend yourself. This is a spell that some of the Auror's use. It's the shielding spell, if you've heard of it?" Hermione tutted. Of course she'd heard of it!
"Alright, alright!" Ted said impatiently "I'm going to try and hex you and you can try and block it, okay? Wait, do you know the incantation?"
"Yes, it's Protego"
"Good, good, right, let's go"
After an hour of attacking and defending, Ted was finished for the day. They were both out of breath; it had been almost non-stop hexing.
"You're pretty good" Ted told her with a smile "Not bad at all"
"Thanks" Hermione said with a small smile. She froze when Ted tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear.
"You look a lot better like that" he told her with a wink. Hermione blushed and looked away.
"Hey, you're not gonna go all quiet on me and try and avoid me now, are you? I hate it when girls do that!" Hermione smacked him on the arm.
"Shut up!" she snapped. Ted grinned cheekily as he put his hands up in defense.
"Alright, I was just saying!"
"Humph"
"So, you're Draco Malfoy's fiancée, huh? I feel so sorry for you. He's a right moron, if you ask me" Hermione giggled.
"Yeah, well, it's not like either of us want to get married, especially to each other. At school, we're the worst of enemies."
"Ah, I see" Ted nodded understandingly, he looked sympathetic "Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm normally always available, unless I'm on a mission for the Dark Lord"
"What do you do for him? With your missions?" Ted shrugged.
"It's normally just spying. Nothing major. You'll probably be asked to do something small and work upwards from there"
Hermione nodded.
"Yeah, I'd better get going now, so I'll see you later, huh babe?" Ted winked at her, gave her a light kiss on the cheek and left. Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy was in a broody mood. He hated Ted more than anything, and even though Hermione was his worst enemy, he didn't like the fact that Ted was spending time with her! It was merely the fact that he couldn't hex her. He wanted to get even, and oh was he going to! Draco smirked as he watched Simmons leave. Now was the time to get his own back on Malomfry, and he knew just how to do it.