Rise and Die! Chapter 5
Quick A/N: So I'm one of the few people on ff.net that really doesn't think that Lucius physically harms his son. I got a lot of "why didn't Lucius beat Draco up?" Okay, well, here's the deal: he's not a good guy, but I think of the Malfoys as a family. They're obviously not normal, but surely Draco loves his parents.
In the books, he seems pretty happy at school and hey we know he looks up to daddy dearest. I'm not saying I don't like fanfics that make him out to be like, evil incarnate (and he IS bad, I know, and in fact, I love a lot of those stories), but what I am saying is that Lucius is not going to go on a murderous rampage and try to kill Draco or Hermione. He may be terribly displeased and have some not so good things up his sleeve (and I do think he's a hateful guy), but he isn't physically going to hurt anyone. As for Narcissa, I always pictured her as a "snotty upscale housewife" in the words of one of my reviewers, so that's the way she's going to be. And I think that Lucius probably loves Narcissa. Hey, if you can speculate him beating them up and raping her and stuff, you can speculate good things too, right? Of course I think Lucius is an evil bastard to Harry, Ron, and Hermione (I never said he'd be nice!), but he's got to act differently towards his son.
Bottom line: If you think Lucius and Narcissa are OOC in the way I've characterized them, then, I'm sorry, but this fic will feature Lucius and Narcissa being OOC. Sorry!!!
STORY:
Hermione had probed her new husband quite a bit on the reactions of his parents and had been horrified. What if her parents reacted that way?!
Then again, she wasn't engaged, she didn't have any "must marry a muggle!" rules, and her parents were generally the understanding sort of people. She smiled, appreciating them in a whole new light and stretched out on the bed, waking up fully.
Last night she had gotten home late, having spent most of her day at Malfoy manor, doing her best to console and insult Malfoy all at once. She glanced at her clock and frowned. She'd slept in again; it was already nine. Thank goodness it was a Sunday. One more day to worry entirely about this bizarre and most disconcerting turn of events (namely, her marriage) before she had to concentrate on other things such as her career. Oh, God. She'd been married to the git of all gits since Friday night! Horror of horrors!
She could just imagine what she'd tell her colleagues at work (and Hermione happened to be the head of the small but efficient research company in inventing new potions). "So, Hermione," Maureen, her secretary, would ask. "How was the weekend? Do anything special?"
"Oh, yes," Hermione would reply with a small smile. "I got married, actually."
"Married!" Maureen would gasp. "B-but…I never knew! Was it a small wedding?" she'd ask, not saying anything but the shock of not being invited would be evident on her face.
"Oh, no," Hermione would assure her, and Maureen's face would drop in disappointment, hurt that she hadn't been invited, until Hermione continued boldly... "There were no guests at all!"
Maureen would look up immediately, curious. "No guests?" she'd echo. "Hermione, you eloped, didn't you! You sly, sly girl! Who's the lucky man?" she'd gush.
Hermione would pinch her lips tightly and shake her head. "No, didn't elope…and the lucky man is actually a sodding git, and old school nemesis to boot… you might've heard of him. He's actually rather well-known in the wizarding world."
Maureen's face would be different hues of confusion. "But if you didn't like him, why would you marry him?" she'd ask. "And who is it?!"
Hermione would take a deep breath and sigh. "I married him because I was stone pissed, and so was he. And this 'he' that I am referring to is actually that pureblooded snotty little maggot Draco Malfoy."
Maureen would gasp. "He's not single anymore?!?!"
Oh no no no no no, Hermione shook her head firmly, bringing herself back to the present. That would not do at all. What was she going to tell people? How was she going to explain this… this horrible thing!
But first off, she thought miserably, getting up and stepping into the shower, she had to tell her parents. What a lot of fun that would be. Perhaps she'd take Malfoy with her, make him suffer a bit…
Twenty minutes later Hermione was dressed and ready to go. She gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror before departing, and made sure her appearance was really rather good. She looked like she was heading off to work, pretty much, except her clothes were slightly more casual. She just hoped her mother would approve; the woman was bent on things like summer dresses and flipping, flopping sandals (highly impractical things, Hermione thought with disdain as she shuffled her feet).
Another two minutes and she'd apparated right outside of Malfoy's huge and impractical (albeit gorgeous) mansion and waited for him to open the door. Finally after what seemed hours he threw it open.
"You!" he churned out, looking most annoyed to see her.
"Hmm, yes, me," Hermione responded cheerfully. She was not going to let this git get to her she was not going to let him get to her no she wasn't "Just let me in already, you snotrag!"
Well.
So much for the let's-be-civilized-about-this-approach.
He smirked. "I'm sorry, Granger, but I don't generally open my home to those who call me a 'snotrag'."
She breathed deeply, to calm her frayed nerves. "I think it is an exception," and her voice rose higher the angrier she got, "in the case that I am your bloody wife you absolute prat!"
"You know," he continued in that same cocky manner (apparently he'd recovered well from yesterday's shock), "some people find dirty language to be a huge turn on. But I'm sorry, darling; I'm not in the mood for sex."
She rolled her eyes. "You little ferret. Anyhow, in fact there is no need for me to come in after all, instead you will be coming out." And with that she yanked his hand and pulled him out of the door. He scowled fiercely, his grey eyes turned steel with anger and he was about to say something when she grabbed his hand and hoped for the best.
She wasn't that good at double apparition, but she hoped they both made it…
It was all over in a moment and she cautiously opened her eyes and checked for body parts. All there, good. Quickly she turned over to her husband (and the feeling of disgust that went with that word!) and was relieved to find that he, too, was all in one piece, although he did look very murderous.
"What have you done?" he asked, his voice dipping low. Now Hermione didn't really know Draco Malfoy all that well, but she figured out that the angrier he got the quieter he got. Uh-oh.
"Um," she replied bravely, "this is Stonegate street…and that over there is, um, my parents' house."
He did not even glance in the direction she pointed. "You brought me to your muggle parents' house?" he said incredulously. "I cannot believe this! You wench! How dare you. I'm leaving right bloody now!"
"No, no you're not," she shushed him. "In order to apparate away from somewhere you've got to know where you are and honestly you have no idea what part of England this is, and for that matter, I'm not going to tell you until you've completed your task here with me."
"Task?" he sputtered, still seething with anger.
"Task," she repeated firmly and marched up to the lovely cream stucco double story house that she had fond memories of. She knocked the knocker a few times and waited, and soon the door was opened up by a very familiar face.
"Mum!" she cried happily.
"Darling!" her mother replied just as enthusiastically, pulling her daughter into a hug.
Only when Hermione pulled away did she remember Draco. She turned to look at him and saw that of course he had a scowl on his face. Stupid git. Her mother noticed him at the same time and gave Hermione an ooh-who-is-that-young-man-tease-tease sort of look. Hermione frowned and pulled Draco inside; although he did resist quite a bit she managed to finally get him in the door.
"Mum, where's dad?" she asked, hoping her father was home. She knew she had to explain this mess to the two of them while they were together, should they need to lean on each other for support or something (oh, Merlin forbid!).
"I'm right here, sweetie!" her father entered the conversation loudly, emerging from his study. "It's wonderful to see you again!"
After the quick hugs that the Granger family exchanged they all made their way to the kitchen, Hermione dragging Draco behind her. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and motioned for her parents to sit down.
"Mum, Dad," she began slowly, turning to face them both. "I've got something to tell you."
She glanced nervously at Draco who seemed most intent on looking at his hands. Damn him! Fat load of help he was; the horrid little cretin! "I'd like to introduce you to my…" she trailed off, meekly, and most unhappily. She really didn't want to say the word. It made it so final!
"Husband," interjected Draco. Hermione shot him a Look™.
"Yes," she finally continued. "Draco Malfoy. We got married over the weekend."
Her parents both gasped simultaneously. "Hermione…" her mother began. Hermione braced herself. "Did you say…you got married? You got married?"
She nodded.
For a second, there was silence. Hermione shifted uncomfortably. Then—
"DARLING!" her mother squealed. "That's absolutely wonderful! I've been waiting to hear this since… oh, since you were twenty-one! Lovely! Absolutely marvelous! Don't you think so, dear?" she asked excitedly, turning to face her husband.
He nodded. "Yes, Hermione dear, I think it's absolutely lovely that you got married. We'd always hoped you elope anyway, save us a bit of expense… only kidding, only kidding," he hastened at Hermione's glare. "So, young man, do tell us a bit about yourself."
Draco and Hermione could not say a word. They both gaped, open mouthed at Mr. and Mrs. Granger, unable to process what they were hearing. "You're not upset?" Hermione finally whispered. "I thought…you always said you wanted to plan…huge wedding…that sort of stuff you always said about marrying a nice boy you'd known for a while…none of that?"
"Of course, dearie, but what's important is that you're happy," her mother stressed.
"But I'm no—" Hermione started to whine, but was furious to find Draco's hand quickly clamped at her mouth.
"I'm Draco Malfoy," he introduced himself in a suave manner. "Hermione and I both went to Hogwarts together."
"Really?" Mr. Granger began. "So you also have this magic business about you?"
Draco nodded proudly. Hermione fumed.
"So, tell me how you and Hermione got together," her mother gushed. "Hermione hasn't said a word about you to me! I don't know why; hey, Ted," she giggled, looking at her husband, "our Hermione's got a handsome one, hasn't she! Look at you, Draco! Hermione he's soo good-looking! Oh, I'm so happy for you dear!"
Oh please Merlin smite me down smite me down right now…Hermione thought despairingly. She was dead, she was dead, she was dead! Draco would never let this go. By gods she was so embarrassed all she wanted to do was melt into the floor. Hell she'd rather fight Voldemort again than go through this awful… oh, Merlin. There was no way to salvage the situation. She managed a watery smile.
Draco, once again, the blithering idiot, leapt to the "rescue". "Hermione and I weren't very good friends at school," he conceded, "but after we graduated, we met again recently in a bar…and I began to see what a lovely witch she was…although, I must say, I wasn't quite interested in her at first, but… she began pursuing me (Hermione's mouth dropped open in outrage)…and with her extraordinary, er, courting talents, she won me over quite shortly."
"Y-y-ou…" Hermione sputtered, but swallowed her anger. Her parents still had those huge silly grins plastered on their faces, and Hermione decided it best not to ruin it for them just yet. "Look, Mum and Dad," she said desperately, "um, Draco and I have to go… er, furniture shopping for our new house, so we really must be off. I'll contact you later, mum, and tell you about the, um, sofas I've picked out."
Her mother smiled. "Look, Ted, our little girl's grown up."
Her father walked sternly over to Draco but he had a twinkle in his eye. "Son, you take good care of my daughter. She's my only one, so if anything goes wrong with her, there will be hell to pay!"
Draco nodded. "Of course, Mr. Granger," he replied courteously.
"None of this Mr. Granger business," Ted said as a goodbye, "please call me Ted. After all, you're family now!"
And with that, they were off.
Standing outside the driveway, Hermione was sure her face was quite red. She was absolutely mortified. She turned to see that Draco was smirking at her in a way she found absolutely irritating, but she couldn't even say anything… the last thing she wanted to do was start a conversation with the atrocious man right now; she knew she wouldn't hear the end of it.
He started it anyway. "So, dear wifey, I think that went… a bit better than expected, don't you think?"
"Shut up," she growled.
"In fact I would get the impression that you'd never brought home a boyfriend before. And then, for this lovely little surprise…I think your parents were getting a bit worried there, starting to doubt what side of the Quidditch pitch you flew on…but this set them right straight, didn't it? And I do think they rather liked me, but then again, I'm a modest fellow, I wouldn't know."
"Modest fellow?" Hermione repeated disbelievingly. "Excuse me? My arse you're modest! I can't believe you in there! Pretending that I was…pursuing you! Pursuing you…you make me out to be some sort of…prostitute!" she finally spat out, her voice shrill with anger.
He only laughed.
She was absolutely infuriated. The smug little bastard! "And," he added suddenly, "your mother seemed thrilled that her daughter had snagged a 'handsome one'. I suppose I should take that as a compliment? Perhaps you think me rather good-looking too?" he asked gleefully. "Ooh, or maybe, your mum was just surprised that someone as… plain as her daughter…do excuse me…would be able to get to someone of my excellent and most wonderful looks?"
That was it.
"Get home by yourself," she snapped, knowing full-well she hadn't told him where he was yet. And with that she left a very flustered and angry Draco behind.
A/N: Yay! Be proud of me! Another chapter out so quickly! Consider it my present to you people for that long month and a half wait. I can't believe I got it out so fast hehe, I can't get over that. As usual tell me what you thought, any improvements, anything you really liked, the whole shindig. I'm so glad a lot of you brought up that OOC question because I did some real pondering before I posted that huge author's note up top. I'm always open to suggestion...and with that, I'm out.