Chapter Two: New Revelations
Hermione was sitting on the floor of Flourish and Blotts looking through the bottom shelf of the Potions aisle. She was looking for Advanced Potions for the Mind, Body, and Soul by Grindolynne Luqui.
She wasn't in the best of moods because her mother had insisted upon taking her to the beauty parlor, babbling about knocking the boys' socks off her final year at Hogwarts. So she had just endured two hours of a bunch of silly witches picking at her face, nails, and hair. Her hair went through the full brunt of it all though. It now hung straight to her waist in a chestnut brown waterfall. Her fingernails and toenails were perfectly manicured, which was one thing she liked considering they were usually broken from potions work.
'Oh, where is it already!' the hateful thought came bubbling to the surface of her mind. The thought was continued out in a small tirade about proper librarianship to herself.
Suddenly she could sense someone behind her, so she stopped her hateful muttering and turned to face the person who still hadn't said anything to her. Her furrowed brow creased as her brows went up in surprise.
When she had turned around she had came face to face-or chest really-to none other than Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince.
"You do know, Granger, that talking to one's self is the first sign of insanity? But of course you do know that, because I couldn't imagine Potter's know-it-all girlfriend not to," the boy drawled venomously.
"For one thing, Malfoy, yes, I have heard that, but do not believe in that nonsense at all. Secondly, Harry and I are not dating," she started in a cold tone he hadn't heard from her before.
"Now, now, Granger, don't get your knickers in a knot," he said equally, "I was just quoting rumor."
He looked her over carefully sizing her up. Physically she wasn't a match, but he knew her mind was as sharp as a whip and could cut him in half with a small flick of her small wrists. She was a mere 5'4" with a slim build. Her dark hair framed her heart shaped face, while vibrant amber eyes shot daggers at him. 'Wait a minute! Amber eyes? I've seen those only once before, which means they can't be common…' he thought.
Hermione watched as his gaze became thoughtful, which worried her to a degree. But quickly as it had appeared it disappeared.
"Whatever happened to your bushy hair, Granger?" he said aggravatingly close to the reason she was in such a foul temperament in the first place.
"Well, it all started with this dratted potion that I accidentally dumped on my head this morning. It actually just ruined my hair this way, and I can't get it back to normal," she lied sarcastically.
A smile tired to curve his lips, but he resisted. She caught the twitch though, and it really wasn't what she would have expected.
"Poor thing, I'd just hate for it to stay that way," he declared in mock sympathy.
Hermione looked at him questioningly, but took in his frame and appearance while she was at it. She couldn't help the feeling of appreciation she had for his body.
He quit his musing when he remembered that se was the cause for some of his sufferings at home. His silver eyes turned cold again.
"Move out of my way, Granger," he demanded harshly, "Or I'll have to move you."
Hermione watched his change in awe, not thinking she stepped aside.
Draco smirked at her.
'Damn it! You just listened to him!' she thought furiously with herself. She watched as he reached up to the top shelf and pulled the book she needed down.
He turned on his heel and said he'd see her at school, leaving a distressed Hermione behind him. 'How am I ever going to reach the top shelf?' she thought angrily, 'The least he could have done was get me one!'
She muttered a curse to the air and headed back to the front of the store to the counter to ask for help.
There stood her mother holding all the books she needed for her seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looking quite happy.
"How did you get that, Mum?" Hermione asked curiously pointing at the Potions book. A strange feeling of slight dread filled her mind for an instant.
"Oh, a lady's son I met last year gave it too me, dear. Why?" Mrs. Granger babbled innocently.
Hermione shrugged it off thinking that her mother had met someone while they were shopping.
Hermione wasn't listening to her mother's nonstop chatter about catching up with old friends, but she was thinking of her encounter with the Malfoy heir. As soon as her mother put the car in park, she hopped out with all her things shrank to fit in one bag and ran into the house.
She still didn't understand the sudden transformations she saw in Draco Malfoy, and that worried her for some reason.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Draco didn't listen to his mother's chatter either. She kept rambling on about an old friend of hers, but he was lost in thoughts of Granger.
Her eyes kept flashing in his mind. Those big, probing amber eyes were all he could think about. But where had he seen them before? And why couldn't he get her out of his mind?
Finally he gave up trying to concentrate on his new potions book and decided that he needed to pay his mother's yearbook a visit again.
He walked up to the third floor where his parents' quarters and study was thinking about seeing Hermione in the bookshop. Draco had found it completely amusing that she wouldn't be able to reach the required potions book, but had grabbed one down and gave it to her mother, which his mother was talking to at the moment rather excitedly. He had already had one, but was examining several books on the next aisle when he heard her mumbling grumpily about improper librarianship. Good grief, was she born in a library? He never even thought about why his mother was talking so animatedly with a muggle because he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts.
When Draco reached the study he checked to make sure no one was occupying it, more importantly his father. Quietly he strolled over to his mother's small desk where a small vase was sitting full of ice blue roses. He pulled out the drawer that he knew held all of his mother's yearbooks and old school papers.
He pulled out her graduating year's book that would be filled with notes of luck and encouragement from friends. He flipped through until he found the seventh years.
Oh, yes here are the Gryffonders. Potter, Black, and Lupin were all in a picture together making faces. He flipped on to find the Slytherins, and that was where he found the pair of eyes he'd only glanced once before.
It was a picture of a man with sandy blonde hair and amber eyes. His name was Richard Granger. A perfect white smile told that he was completely happy with his life at the time.
'So little Miss Granger isn't so filthy after all…I wonder if father knows this?'
He was going to put the book back when he spotted a small folded piece of paper crammed in the back of the drawer in a small crack. He pulled it out carefully afraid of its aged appearance. When he opened it, it revealed a lot more about Hermione that he was unsure about.
Cissa,
I wish you a great future, be it with Lucius or not. I fear for you, dear. He doesn't seem to be the sort to sit by idly while we're at the brink of war. Cissa, I feel a dark aura around the man. Please be careful and wary of him.
Richard and I are to be married soon after graduation. I wish for you to attend as my Maid of Honor, but I sense that this will not be so. I wish we could keep in touch, but I know it as a false-dream with Lucius. Good luck!
Your friend,
Katilynn Siegal
A.K.A. Kat
After reading of this friendship, Draco flipped through until he found Miss Siegal. But she wasn't where he would have expected.
There she was in Gryffondor. She was a small woman with brown hair that was cut like a pixie's. Her heart shaped face held a fairy like appearance and her hazel eyes were large and warm. Hermione definitely looked like her mother, but had Richard Granger's eyes.
It was quite odd…The Gryffondor mudblood wasn't a mudblood after all. She was quite pureblooded at that. Her father, though he didn't have a popular name was indeed in Slytherin, so was inevitably pureblooded. While her mother was of pureblood decent that was as nearly as high as that of the Malfoy clan.
A small gasp interrupted his thoughts. He turned to face his mother, who had an odd look of fright in her eyes. It was a look he never saw from her.
"What are you doing, Draco?" she asked, her voice was tight. She stared at the note in his hands with terror.
He answered without thought, "I saw Granger at Flourish and Blotts today, mother."
"Yes, dear, I know," she stated her voice still tight.
"I noticed her eyes for the first time today," he said. Now she knew what he was getting at. He continued as she tensed up, "I've only seen them once before, Mother."
"Yes, I know dear," she had let him look through her yearbooks only once before.
"Did you go to their wedding?" he asked softly, though he already had a feeling he knew.
Her reply was in a trembling voice, " No, I did not. And before you ask why, it was because your father would not let me. He made sure I never saw her again. She knew it."
"I'm sorry," Draco whispered seeing the pain in his mother's eyes, but he had to ask another question, "How did Katilynn know, mother?"
"Oh, she was quite a good Seer, dear, though Richard never had the patience with the art," Narcissa said smiling at her memories.
"Sounds a lot like Granger. She walked out on Trelawney in a heart beat," he said making her smile.
"Does she know?" he asked inquisitively.
"Oh, no. You-Know-Who was after her family for a while, so they had to go into hiding. They never could come out because they feared his supporters. So no she doesn't know a thing," she conceded.
Suddenly Narcissa started to look slightly uncomfortable, "What's her name, Draco?" she asked quietly. She was beginning to regret telling her son something that could endanger her friend's family.
"Hermione, Mum. Why?"
"Oh, I've never heard you say it, that's all," she paused for a moment before her next question, "Why don't you get along?"
"I guess it's because the whole 'Gryffondor versus Slytherin' thing. Plus, she's beaten me at everything we've done in school, except maybe flying, which strikes up Father's ire. Then, she is Potter's friend…" Draco replied a list was forming in his mind every second.
"Alright, alright, Draco," his mother chided.
He started to leave when she called him back, "Draco, promise me something…please tell no one about Hermione's background. Especially not your father…" she pleaded.
"I promise, Mother," Draco said gently and with that he left.
Narcissa Malfoy sat in the empty room a moment longer. A shiver slipped up her spine, and it wasn't because the study was cold.