Courting Miss Granger- Chapter 14- Welcome to the Family
By Marmalade Fever
Hermione was not surprised to find a blond head waiting patiently in her kitchen. Too bad for him, though, she had already gotten dressed. "Morning," she said without a glance in his direction but instead opening her refrigerator and taking out a carton of milk.
"I see you've mangaged to thwart my pajama scheme," he said from behind her, as she took a box of cereal from her cupboard.
"Yeah... Plus the weather's getting colder," she said, matter-of-factly, sitting down to her breakfast.
"You're at least going to tell me what color they were, aren't you?" Malfoy asked, resting his head on his hands. He was smiling innocently at her.
"Sort of a brownish olive-color," she replied, wrinkling her nose a bit.
"Aha, so maybe it wasn't just the weather then. Trying to impress me, eh?" he asked, giving her a more cheeky sort of smile. She rolled her eyes at him. Well, maybe she had decided against giving him a fashion show because she didn't like the color, so what? She certainly wasn't going to admit it to him. And besides, it was November for crying out loud! It had been raining for most of the week. "Well, you look lovely anyway," he added, making her blush slightly.
"Thank you, Draco," she said, batting her eyelashes in a mock pretty-girl act.
He laughed. "So, we're finally going to tell your parents. Any thoughts on the matter? I don't know how much you want to reveal about the contract. I'd say that you should come clean, but I don't exactly want them to throw any heavy objects at me either," he said, winking.
Hermione sighed. She hated lying to her parents, but he had a point. They wouldn't be very thrilled if they found out that the man she was going to marry was also threatening to kill her. It had all gotten so complicated. How could she explain that they had grown to actually sort of like one another? Or, in the very least, that he had done an excellent job making her think that they liked one another. Her parents had never been ones to take marriage lightly, not that they would take death lightly, either. Then there was also the factor that they had only been seeing each other for 3 weeks. Even with a modified explanation, her parents knew her too well to believe that she would ever do something so brash. She had been dating Algernon for eight months before she'd even introduced him to them, after all. Algernon, on the other hand, had been a completely different case. He'd been an intellectual, which is why she'd dated him in the first place. He'd also been nice enough, but she'd never actually felt attracted to him or even felt attached to him. In the whole nine months that they'd gone out, they had never even kissed, and it hadn't just been because of his too late for buber-tuber pus acne, either. "Well," she said, still thinking, "the truth would probably be best, so long as we make it very clear that we want this as well. And maybe we should leave out the part about your father threatening me..."
"Yeah," Malfoy said, nodding, "that sounds about right." Hermione went back to eating her cereal. Was it her imagination or was he staring at her? She sped up her eating. The sooner they got to her parents' house the better.
"Alright, let's go," she said, scourgifying her bowl and placing it back in the cupboard. Half a second later they were back on her parents' stoop, just escaping the pouring rain. Hermione rang the bell and subconsciously held her hand behind her back to hide her ring from view.
Draco watched his fiancée's nervous movements and grinned. Compared to her friends who actually knew him, this should be a breeze! He had to admit though, parents did have a tendency to, er, be overprotective. On a lighter note, though, at least her parents were muggles. There was very little possibility of either of them hexing him.
"Draco, Hermione!" It was Mr. Granger... Ted, wasn't it? "Honey, the kids are here!" he called over his shoulder. Mrs. Granger appeared in the doorway as well.
"Don't just stand there, come in," she said, leading them into the living room where a fire was burning merrily in the fireplace. "Let me just make a pot of tea and we can all have a nice chat," she added, smiling fondly at them before rushing off to the kitchen.
"Draco, my boy, it's good to see you again," Ted Granger said, sitting down on the couch and clapping a hand on Draco's shoulder. He did his best to smile back at the muggle man who was acting too nice for comfort. Granger sat down between them, her right hand deliberately blocking her left. "Well, I'm going to go help your mother," Mr. Granger said, standing up and leaving them with a suspiciously cheerful grin in place.
"Are they acting sort of odd to you?" Draco asked, as soon as the man had left the room.
"Most definitely. You don't think they were expecting this, do you?" she asked, still staring at the door to the kitchen.
"How could they be?" Both of the elder Grangers came back into the room with a pot of tea and a tray of biscuits.
"So, kids, what brings you by? Anything you wanted to tell us about?" Margery Granger asked, leaning forward in what could only be anticipation.
Draco and Granger exchanged a look. "Well," Granger began, "we, er, do have something to tell you, as a matter of fact..." Both parents were leaning in with bated breath.
"We're, er, engaged," Draco finished, holding up Granger's hand to show them the ring. Her parents both leaned back with a sigh of relief.
"You knew, didn't you?" Granger said, looking back and forth between her parents.
"Well... yes, yes we did," Mrs. Granger said, nodding.
"How...?"
"It was your friend Ginny. She called yesterday, with some difficulty I might add, and asked if I could help her plan your wedding shower. I don't think she knew that we didn't know, though. So, how did this happen? We were so surprised... You've only been seeing each other for what, three weeks?"
Curse muggles and their ability to do math... Well, he might as well try and fill them in as pleasantly as possible. "First of all, let me assure you that I love your daughter," Draco started, ignoring the odd look on the girl's face, "but there's something else you need to know."
"And what is that?" Mr. Granger asked, eyebrows knitting and suddenly looking stern.
"Well, I'm what we call a 'pureblood.' That means that as far as my heritage goes back there have never been any wizard/non-wizard marriages." He was clearly losing them. "And, anyway, round about six hundred years ago my ancestors drew up a contract that said that everyone in our family has to marry by the age of twenty-six. I turned twenty-five a few weeks ago, which is when I found out about it. Funny thing is, Hermione here is the only girl left who fits the specifications... in the entire world."
Both of the elder Grangers looked shell-shocked. "And what happens if you aren't married by then?" Ted Granger asked, somehow managing to move his jaw.
"I lose out on the family fortune and I end up cursed, which pretty much translates into poor and dead."
No one said anything for several minutes. After a while Mrs. Granger stood and did something Draco was not expecting. "You poor boy," she said, hugging him, "welcome to the family! And thank the heavens that you're in love!"
