The URL's don't work because stupid took out the underscores! There's supposed to be one between 'pressshot' and '02' in the first one, and after 'tara' in the second.
www . sonymusic . ca / Media / pressshot02 . jpg
www . worth1000 . com / web / media / 74626 / tara . jpg
All this time, you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
- Avril Lavigne, Happy Ending
Dumbledore sat back in his chair and looked at his three guests for a moment before he spoke again. "All right," he said. "If you don't mind me dispensing with the easy part first?"
He paused, clearly waiting for objections, but Hermione couldn't think of any, and apparently neither could Draco or Narcissa. Nobody spoke.
"Excellent," said Dumbledore. "Narcissa – I believe you have just found yourself in need of a place to say. Something tells me you'll not be welcome at your sister's, and your Aunt and Uncle's house is currently serving as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix."
Mrs. Malfoy nodded. "If you can offer me somewhere, I'd be very grateful," she said quietly.
"Well," Dumbledore said, "it just so happens that I was unable to find anyone willing to accept the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year. For lack of other options I was prepared to teach it myself, but I am a very busy man, and am thus prepared to accept any other qualified candidate presented."
"Me be a teacher?" Narcissa raised her head, looking startled.
"I'm sure you're uniquely qualified," said Dumbledore. "There's a salary attached to the position, of course, plus bed, board, and the services of Hogwarts' house-elves. And I rather doubt you'll be able to find anywhere else to stay that will allow you access to your son."
Narcissa nodded. "I don't know," she said. "I've never tried teaching... not anyone else's children, that is, I've taught Draco..." she glanced at him, but he refused to meet her eyes. "I will certainly try my best, though," she promised.
"If we discover that you are unsuited to the position, we can, of course, make other arrangements," Dumbledore said. "My only condition on your acceptance would be that you agree to tell me the whole truth of this situation, as I rather suspect we haven't heard it yet. I promise, I will do everything in my power to ensure that no further trouble comes to you for it. I understand that you are as much a victim as either of the children."
"Thank you," said Narcissa quietly.
"Wonderful," Dumbledore nodded. "Now – Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy, or vise-versa, as the cas4e my be. May I repeat that you can rest assured, we will not be changing anyone's name just yet. Nor will you be forced to resign your positions as head boy and girl, although I understand completely if you choose to do so. I think it is probably best if we try to disrupt your lives as little as possible."
Hermione just nodded slowly. She still felt rather shell-shocked, and suspected that if all these decisions had been up to her, she wouldn't even have been able to put together a coherent sentence. Her, a Malfoy? That couldn't be right. Somebody must have made a mistake.
"That said, I don't think you ought to go back down to the Great Hall for supper tonight," the headmaster continued. "That will only cause a commotion. I'll have the house-elves provide a meal for you, and then you can retire to your dormitories and..."
"Wait," Draco interrupted. Hermione and Narcissa both turned in their seats to look at him as he sat up straight. "Wait, you can't... I mean..." he stopped speaking, but opened and shut his mouth a couple more times as he fumbled for words.
"Yes?" Dumbledore asked patiently.
"I can't go back to the dorm like this!" Draco finally managed, spitting the words out as if he had to do so quickly before they could disintegrate. "I mean... can't you just change us back, and..."
"Yes!" Hermione put in. That was the best idea she'd heard yet – heaven knew what the Gryffindors would say if she came to bed tonight looking like Draco Malfoy's long-lost twin sister! Harry and Ron would... she didn't even know how they might react. She doubted they'd reject her, once they'd gotten used to the idea that she was still Hermione, but they'd... she didn't know.
But Dumbledore shook his head. "No – I'm afraid I can't, for two reasons. First: glamour charms tend to be nonspecific, so while I could make you look like each other again, you would not look exactly the same as you did before. And second, I doubt that word of this will remain in this room. Lucius Malfoy will spread the news far and wide in the attempt to vilify those who tricked him. To disguise you again would only fuel rumours. I am a firm believer that honesty is the best policy."
That made sense. If this was true, then Hermione and her friends would have to face up to it sooner or later. But Draco was not so alm.
"But..." h said, "I just... look at me! I can't go back to the Slytherin dorms, I just can't, do you have any idea..."
"Why, Mr. Malfoy," said Dumbledore. "Have you so little faith in your friends?"
"Yes!" said Draco.
Dumbledore sighed and looked at Hermione. "I suppose we could make alternate sleeping arrangements for the next little while. The castle has plenty of unused rooms. Would you prefer that as well, Miss Granger?"
"Please," said Hermione.
"Very well," Dumbledore said. "However, I must insist that both of you attend classes normally. It is not in your best interests to allow your educations to suffer."
"Of course," Hermione nodded.
Dumbledore looked around for further objections, but Hermione and Narcissa had none, and Draco was sitting with his eyes shut as if hoping this would all just go away if he ignored it. He looked as though he were in physical pain.
"Well, after all that, I think we could all use a treat," said Dumbledore. "What is everybody's favourite food?"
Hermione wasn't about to argue with that. "Corn on the cob," she said immediately.
Draco mumbled something about Cornish hen.
"I'm terribly fond of sushi," Narcissa confessed. "It's been a long time since Lucius allowed me to go out for it – he says it's too Muggle-ish."
Dumbledore nodded, and a moment later a group of house-elves in Hogwarts tea towels scurried in with a trolley to distribute dinner. they gave Hermione a plate of corn on the cob the way her father served it at summer barbeques, with a pork chop and coleslaw and a glass of pink lemonade. The headmaster conjured up a table and three chairs, then excused himself, saying he was already horribly late to oversee the start-of-term feast. "I will," he said, "tell the students they shall meet Professor Malfoy tomorrow."
But Narcissa hung her head. "Best call me Professor Black, Albus," she said quietly.
"As you wish," he replied, and departed.
That left Hermione, Draco, and Narcissa alone for what Hermione thought must have been the most horrible, uncomfortable dinner of her life. Mrs. Malfoy kept her head down and didn't talk, while Draco pulled his Cornish hen to bits and stirred mashed potatoes and grilled squash around on his plate without actually eating anything. Hermione found herself unwilling to actually pick up her corncob and eat right off it the way she usually did, not with Draco and Narcissa there to observe her table manners, so she concentrated on cutting her pork chop into bite-sized pieces. The silence, interrupted only by the clinking of cutlery, felt like a heavy weight on her shoulders.
"I'm sorry," said Narcissa quietly.
Hermione didn't reply because she didn't think the apology was directed at her... but Draco didn't say anything, either.
"Draco" said Narcissa. "Please..."
"Please, what?" he demanded, dropping his fork onto his plate with clank. "Please what?"
Narcissa shook her head and was silent.
"Please, what, Mother?" Draco demanded for a third time. "What the hell do you want me to say? that I forgive you and everything's fine? Because it's not! If you knew about this the whole time, why didn't you actually do something about it?"
"I did!" Naricssa looked about to cry again.
"Yeah, you lied about it!" said Draco. "You lied about it and you ruined my life!"
"I did it to protect you!" Narcissa protected.
"Well, I don't feel very protected!" Draco snapped.
"I'm sorry!" Narcissa pulled out Dumbledore's handkerchief again, must to Draco's visible disgust. "I knew it would have to come out someday, but..."
"Malfoy, leave her alone!" said Hermione, as he opened his mouth to shout at his mother again. "She's upset enough already!"
"Shut up, Mu..." Draco began, and then almost choked. He shoved his plate away, stood up, and stamped out.
"Draco!" Narcissa called after him. "Wait, please..."
"I hate you!" Draco told her, and vanished down the spiral staircase. Narcissa bent her head, buried her face in the handkerchief, and sobbed.
Hermione swallowed. "He doesn't mean that," she said.
But Narcissa shook her head. "Yes, he does, and I don't blame him a bit, but..."
"I'm not angry at you," Hermione offered, "for whatever that's worth. I believe you did the only thing you could." She wasn't sure how she felt about this whole absurd situation yet, but she knew she wasn't angry with Mrs. Malfoy.
Narcissa nodded. "Thank you," she said. "I'm sorry, look at me, I'm such a mess..." she rearranged the handkerchief, looking for a dry spot.
"I've got some Kleenex." Hermione pulled a wad out of her pocket and offered it to Narcissa.
"Thank you," Mrs. Malfoy said again. She accepted the tissue and blew her nose, then gave Hermione a weak smile. "Hermione, isn't it? I've always loved names from Shakespeare. I liked 'Miranda' for a girl, but Lucius said it sounded flighty. We weren't terribly creative in naming our offspring... Lucius' parents were Draco and Aurelia, and mine were Aldebaran and Capella, and he thought we ought to keep the names in the family..."
Hermione nodded, and, feeling she was expected to offer something in return, explained: "Hermione was my Mum's favourite name when she was little. She said she always wished her parents had called her that. And 'Jane' was the name of her best friend in college, so I'm Hermione Jane." She paused, then decided to add, "Alan Bradley was the name of my great-grandfather. He died in the war... I forget what he did, but he won the Victoria Cross for it. My whole family's really proud of him. I've got about four cousins all with the same name."
"I see." Narcissa smiled.
This conversation had lifted the oppresive silence a bit, but it descended anew as another house-elf came in and bowed to the two women. "I'm so very sorry to interrupt," it said. "Professor Malfoy, Miss Malfoy..."
"I'm Miss Granger," Hermione corrected it.
"And I suppose I'm Professor Black," sighed Narcissa.
The house-elf looked horrified. "I'm so terribly sorry!" it exclaimed, and bowed even lower, until its long nose scraped the floor. "I didn't mean to offend!"
"That's all right," Hermione said quickly. "What did you want?"
"Oh, I didn't want anything," it assured her. "No, no, no, far be it from me to ask anything of a witch such as yourself! I didn't mean to make you think I wanted anything..."
House-elves. Hermione sighed. "Don't apologize," she said. "It's all right to want things. If you..."
"What were you sent to tell us?" asked Narcissa.
The house-elf bowed again. "I'm supposed to tell you that we're finished getting rooms ready for you. As soon as you're finished eating, I can show you where they are... and Professor McGonagall wants to brief Professor Black on the cirriculum. But not until you're done your suppers, of course, I wouldn't want to take you away from them."
Hermione looked at her plate. Nothing on it seemed terribly appetizing... she wasn't hungry. "I'm finished," she said.
"Me, as well," said Narcissa.
"Are you sure?" the elf asked anxiously.
"Yes," they replied in unison.
It bowed to them yet again. "Follow me, then, please."