Courting Miss Granger-Chapter 16-Bridal Showers

By M-Fever

Hermione stood rather awkwardly in the center of the room as her shower guests did pretty much the same. "It's Hermione, isn't it?" Daphne, whose last name was now Nott, asked.

"Er, yes, that's right," Hermione said with a nod.

"I may be mistaken, but, er, aren't you a muggleborn?" she asked in a nervous manner. Hermione nodded. "Huh... Well isn't that interesting? Excuse me." She walked fairly quickly to the other side of the room. Parvati and Lavender took this as a cue to speak to her next.

"Hello, Hermione, how are you?" Parvati asked in a falsely cheerful voice.

"Well, good, I suppose. I am, er, getting married," she replied.

"That is good, isn't it? But, er, Hermione? Since when are you and," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Malfoy an item?"

"Well," she began but then jumped about a foot in the air. Malfoy had suddenly Apparated beside her. Since when could he Apparate here?

"Hello, darling," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Lavender and Parvati's jaws dropped. Across the room, Daphne looked almost sick with disgust.

"How'd you do that?" Hermione asked, suddenly feeling elated by his presence. She had never been a very selfish person, but the looks on everyone's faces were priceless.

"Do what? Kiss you? That was easy. I just puckered up and went like this." He kissed her cheek a second time, lingering a moment longer.

"No, Apparate here, silly," she said, blushing heavily.

"Oh, that... I guess I never fully explained. It's only non-family members that can't Apparate here. Once we're married, you'll be able to as well." He noticed Lavender and Parvati, apparently, for the first time. "Good afternoon, ladies." He had both arms wrapped around her middle now, standing behind her.

"Hello, er, Draco. We were just asking Hermione..."

"How we ended up together?" he finished. "Complicated really, but for the sake of argument, let's just say it was her unbelievable charm." He brushed a bit of her hair that had been stuck to his face out of the way.

"Well, congratulations," Lavender said, looking as if she were still stifling a gag. "Oh, look, there's Susan, haven't talked to her in awhile." They both scuttled off, leaving the couple by themselves.

Hermione started giggling. "What?" Malfoy asked, turning to her.

"I was actually sort of hoping you'd show up," she said, still smiling.

"So Miss-Perfect isn't so perfect after all? Couldn't resist showing me off in front of all of these ladies with such poor misfortune to already be married?"

Hermione bit her lip. He was right on the nose with that one. "So, what are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm an excellent judge of character. I figured that you'd like to have me strut my stuff," he said, grinning. "And stop biting your lip, darling, you've got me to do that," he added, grinning even more broadly.

Hermione blushed crimson. Part of her wanted to slap him and the other part wanted him to hurry up and actually do the thing. She settled on trying to deflate his ego. "Er, yeah, right... Come on, there's still another two hours left of this silly shindig."

He gave her a wink and took her hand, slowly making their rounds. Half an hour later, Mrs. Malfoy announced that lunch was being served, at which point she shooed her son away, telling him that this was for women only. It was only after a very long luncheon, a few cheesy bridal shower games, and a bothersome gift exchange that Hermione was able to leave and look forward to her real bridal shower with her family.

...

One week later, Hermione was at her second bridal shower. Ginny had seen to it that Mr. and Mrs. Granger's home had been fixed up accordingly and that all of her relatives and muggle friends had been invited.

"I can't believe our little Hermikins is getting married!" Hermione's Aunt Trudy exclaimed, giving her a pat on the back. "Tell us all about him, dear!"

"Well," Hermione started, "his name is Draco Malfoy... which is a weird name, I know. I went to school with him and we met up a while back and started dating," she finished lamely.

"What's he look like?" her cousin Louise asked. She was about two years younger than Hermione and would have been an exact photocopy of her if it weren't for the fact that her hair was dirty-blond.

Hermione glanced at Ginny. "He's blond, fair-skinned..."

"A real looker!" her mother piped in.

Louise laughed but almost immediately frowned at the look on Hermione's face. "What, don't you agree?"

"Well, yes, he is very handsome..." Hermione started.

"Then what was that weird look for?" Louise pressed on.

Hermione was feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute. "I guess you could say that I'm still in denial about his looks." Louise made a motion with her hand for her to explain. "He, er, used to be very mean to me back at school. I spent a lot of time trying not to notice his looks, you know?"

To her amusement, Louise started chuckling. "It's like he was the boy from grade school that picked on you and the adults always said it was because he likes you! Do you remember that, Mum?" she asked, turning to Trudy.

"Oh yes, little Mattie Ferguson. He used to torment you to no end, all just to make you notice him."

Hermione's mouth hung open slightly. This certainly was not the same sort of situation, but still... how had that thought never crossed her mind before? It was a very common situation. There were many books and muggle movies that concerned just that sort of relationship. Was it at all possible that Malfoy had actually, in some weird unconscious way, treated her worse than other muggleborns because he liked her? Or was it simply because she was better at lessons and was friends with Harry? A very interesting idea indeed...

"Why isn't his mother here?" her cousin Alice piped in. She was a year older than Hermione and had very straight, brown hair that had always made Hermione slightly envious.

"Oh, it's funny, but she actually threw me another shower last week. We had a bit of a dispute over the, er, location," she lied, "so here we are." She gestured to the room at large. Ginny gave her a look, but everyone else accepted her explanation.

"How about some cake?" her mother asked after a lull in the conversation. She went into the kitchen and came back with a large white cake with "Hermione and Draco" written across it.

"That really is an interesting name," Penelope said, now even larger around the middle than before. "It really makes me wonder what his parents must be like to name him after such a dreadful person."

"Oh," Hermione said, "they're just peachy... They probably named him after a dragon more so, I'd think."

"I've changed my mind by the way, I'm not going to name this one," she pointed to the lump in her stomach, "Amy, after all. Harry and I were discussing it and we've decided to call her Lily, after her grandmother."

"Speaking of children," Hermione's mother began, "are you planning on having any, Hermione? Ever since you introduced him to us, I've been having visions of the most adorable grandchildren..."

"Er," Hermione said, starting to wish that the party was over already, "I think so." To her horror, her mother got up and fetched her baby pictures and started passing them around.

"Now just imagine that, only with blond hair. Positively beautiful..."

"How sweet! Hermione's playing with an encyclopedia in this one!" Alice said, waving around a picture of Hermione when she was about three.

"I found a naked one!" Trudy cried, before Hermione tugged it out of her hand.

"That's enough of that, thank you!" she said, gathering up the rest of the pictures. "I think I'm ready to call it a night. I'll come and spend the night on Thursday, okay Mum? Draco wants me to come to his parent's house on Christmas."

"That's fine dear. Good night!"

End Notes:

Ha ha, I kind of hit the ball on the nose with Harry naming his daughter Lily. (Though I'm certainly not the only one in fandom to do that.)