Chapter Six
Draco was sitting by the fire when the two boys fell down the slid. Both of them seemed to be short of breath.
"What happened to you two?" Draco drawled, not really caring.
"Err…" Harry seemed to be trying to remember, "We… err…"
"Can't remember, ay Potter?" Draco teased, "How unusual, normally I can't stop hearing about your adventures."
"Shut it Malfoy." Harry glared at Draco.
"The orb! We saw the orb of Palier-thingy again!" Ron sounded triumphant that he had remembered.
"The orb of Pertraho." Harry corrected.
"What?" Draco suddenly became very interested, "And you managed to survive? Again?"
"Don't sound so disappointed." Harry warned.
"Who? Me? No, I'm not disappointed, more like amazed." Draco shrugged off, "That book seemed to indicate that it's very hard to avoid being led to your death."
"You mean the one Hermione stole off of you?" Harry tried to clarify which book Draco was talking about.
"Yeah that…" Draco paused, "What do you mean stole?"
"Err…" Harry realised his mistake all too late, "I meant to say borrowed."
Draco stood up and walked over to the only door in the room, pulled it open and marched through.
"Hermione!" He called out.
Harry and Ron, sensing trouble, followed Draco into the bedroom. Hermione wasn't in there but that didn't seem to deter Draco from his search. He walked over to a boulder and pounded on it.
"Hermione Malfoy!" Draco yelled, "Open this door right now! I want to talk to you."
Harry looked about the room and counted the beds. "Err… Ron?" He asked, "Have you noticed that there is only one bed in here?"
"Yeah," Ron glanced at Harry, "So?"
"Does that mean that they share a bed?"
"I guess so; they are married, Harry." Ron looked back at where Draco was hitting a rock trying to get Hermione to come out and talk to him, "The poor girl."
Draco heard and shot Ron a nasty trademark Malfoy scowl; then he refocused his attention on the bathroom boulder. "Hermione open this boulder right this instant."
"Hey, quit bugging Hermione." Harry stood next to Draco and stared him in the face.
"Oh for god's sake what is going on out here?" Hermione stood in the doorway to the cave, she had a towel wrapped around her frame and her hair was piled up in a loose bun on her head. All the guys in the room stared at her.
"Well, does someone want to tell me?" Hermione looked each of them in the eye in turn, "Or am I going to have to make you?"
"What's all this business about you stealing one of my books?" Draco demanded, trying really hard not to run forward and kiss Hermione senseless.
"Pardon?" Hermione looked at Draco quizzically.
"That book you showed us with the information about the Orb thing in it," Harry clarified, "You told Ron and I that you had stolen it."
"That was a cover story." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Oh." Draco looked at Hermione apologetically.
"That's what all this was about?" Hermione sighed in disbelief.
"Well," Harry searched in his mind for another reason to have bothered Hermione, "We also saw the orb thing again."
"What!" Hermione screamed, "That's horrible! Are you two ok?"
"Yeah, we're both fine." Ron stepped up next to the other two boys.
"Oh thank goodness." Hermione threw her arms around her two friends protectively.
Draco sneered at the group. "That's enough, break it up."
Ron laughed as Hermione let both him and Harry free, "Is Malfoy jealous?"
"Why would I be jealous?" Draco smirked as a plan formed in his mind, "I can do this."
Draco grabbed Hermione and pulled her close for a kiss. Hermione was, needless to say, shocked and not very happy about kissing in front of her friends. Draco, however, wasn't letting her go anywhere. The kiss lasted about a minute before Hermione finally managed to break free from Draco's hold, both physically and mentally; his kisses were always so intoxicating.
"I did not need to see that!" Ron had his arm up shielding his face from view.
Harry left the room moving back out into the common room. Ron quickly followed after him.
"Now that those two are gone…" Draco looked at Hermione slyly and pulled her into another amazing kiss. He lifted her up and carried her over to the bed; he laid her down never breaking their kiss.
"Draco?" Hermione finally managed to break away from his mouth and speak, "I have to deal with my friends."
"They can wait." Draco nuzzled his head into her shoulder.
"Draco, no." Hermione tried again. She pushed her husband away from her and dashed back into the bathroom to change her clothes.
"Dang." Draco frowned into the pillow, after about a minute Hermione re-emerged from the bathroom and headed out to the common room. Draco's head followed her and she cast a sympathetic look in his direction.
"Well we have to do something about this." Hermione toasted another Marshmallow. They were now sitting around the fire talking about what to do about the orb. Draco had joined them after agreeing not to kiss Hermione… in front of them.
"But what?" Harry picked a charred-blackmarshmallow from his stick, "We can't do anything about it, the library has no information and on the off-chance we find the orb somewhere we'd never be able to concentrate long enough to examine it."
"We have to find it when it isn't operational." Draco licked the gooey mess of amarshmallow off his finger.
"What do you mean 'isn't operational'?" Ron blew his marshmallow out.
"Well it has to stop working at some stage," Draco reasoned, "otherwise people could never tell it what to do."
"There's an idea!" Hermione smiled at Draco, "So all we have to do is find out where it is kept when it isn't here trying to kill Harry."
"How do you know it's me it's after?" Harry complained.
"You're the most likely target." Hermione explained, "If Voldemort does have the Orb, and it's pretty safe to say he has, then it is most likely he would be using it to harm you."
"Didn't that book say that only a Malfoy could use the orb?" Ron stuck another Marshmallow into the fire and watched it catch alight.
"Yeah," Harry glared at Draco, "so it could be being kept with Malfoy, Lucius that is, and he's at your home."
"That'll be fun," Draco rolled his eyes; "we'll just waltz up to the manor and start looking around for it. Sure that'll work."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Harry forgot his marshmallow which shrivelled up into a black charred mess on the end of his stick, still being licked by the flames of the fire.
"The manor is huge: even if you could manage to find the time to search without my father breathing down your necks you wouldn't stand a chance of a cinder in snow of finding the orb. The manor is simply too big." Draco grabbed another marshmallow from the packet and rammed it onto his toasting stick, "Not to mention all of the traps, hidden passages and passwords needed to manoeuvre about the place; in many respects it's more complicated than Hogwarts."
"Unless we have someone who knows the place helping us," Hermione shifted closer to Draco, "someone who's lived there all his life and knows his way around."
"I am not helping you." Draco folded his arms resolutely, "Do you have any idea what my father would do to me if he found out I was helping Harry Potter?"
"Does it matter?" Harry asked carelessly.
"Of course it bloody matters!" Draco yelled, "As long as my father is in that manor I will not help you search it!"
"Even if it's for the greater good of wizard kind?" Harry stood up, his fists clenched.
"Even if it's for the greater good of wizard kind!" Draco stood up and towered over Harry. (AN: Well, Harry is short so Draco is allowed to tower over him.)
"Ow, ow, ow!" Ron waved his hand in front of his mouth, "Hot, hot, hot, hot!"
Everyone stared at Ron, the tension that was in the room a second ago was forgotten and went to sulk in the corner.
Draco looked like he was about to laugh at Ron when an owl flew in. How it could do that without there being a window is not known, but an owl did indeed fly into the commonroom.
It landed on Draco's shoulder and dropped a letter into his waiting hands before stealing a marshmallow to glue its mouth shut and flying off again.
Draco sat back down and ripped open the letter.
Draco,
Your mother and I are planning to go abroad this coming holiday so there is no need for you or your wife to return to the manor. You are to stay at school or do whatever you want; quite frankly I do not care. But I do not want you staying at the manor; you know how your mother worries when you are there alone.
Study harder, we expect you to do better this year at school.
Lucius.
Draco read the letter through twice before handing it to Hermione, "This should please you."
Hermione scanned down the letter, "I don't have to go back to the manor for Christmas!" she explained to her two friends curious faces.
"That's great!" Ron smiled happily at Hermione, "You can come and spend the holidays with Harry and I at the Burrow."
"I am not spending Christmas at that hovel." Draco sat back down next to Hermione.
"Why do you think that you'd be invited?" Ron asked, offended by Draco's description of his home.
"I want to spend Christmas with my wife." Draco put his arms around Hermione and resisted the urge to be childish and poke his tongue out at Ron.
"So what are we going to do?" Hermione asked, "Maybe we could all go to the Manor?"
"Are you kidding?" Draco looked at Hermione shocked, "I am not having the whole Weasley clan over at my house for a Christmas anything."
"And if you think that any of the Weasley clan would want to, you're barking mad!" Ron's voice held a similar tone to Draco's.
"Well what about Grimmauld…" Harry suggested; he had inherited it from his godfather… A glare from Hermione and Ron shut him up. It wasn't a good idea to have the son of a known Death Eater around for Christmas lunch at the Headquarters of those fighting against Voldemort.
"I have an idea!" Hermione piped in cheerfully, "We could have it at my parent's house!"
"You mean have Christmas with muggles?" Draco looked doubtfully at Hermione.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Hermione seemed keen on the idea.
"That would be perfect." Harry smiled at his friend. "Neutral territory."
Two days later Draco found himself standing at Hogsmeade with his Slytherin friends, if you could call them that, saying goodbye. He watched as they all boarded the train. His trunk was magically shrunk in his pocket. The plan was that he would apparate to the station in London where he would meet Hermione at a café when she arrived by train. Then they would then meet up with the Grangers and head back to their abode.
Draco smiled to himself: so far so good. Crabbe and Goyle were both looking like they wouldn't know what to do while their master stayed at Hogwarts (Draco's cover story) but Pansy had assured them that they could come visit her. Both Crabbe and Goyle had offered to stay at Hogwarts after that; the most intelligent thing that either of them had ever done. Draco had somehow managed to force them onto the train and he was now watching happily as it chugged out of the station.
Draco smiled to himself, pulled off his outer robe to reveal his muggle clothing and apparated to the London train station.
Hermione leapt off of the scarlet train and straight into her parents' arms. Tears of happiness ran down her face and she had to hastily wipe them away before anyone saw the Head Girl crying.
"Hermione!" Her mother seemed to refuse to let her go. "We thought that we would never see you again."
"You know that I would never allow that to happen," Hermione's moist eyes shone with happiness. "you should have known that no matter what, you would be able to see me again. I would have made sure of that."
"Oh Hermione," Evelyn was having trouble containing her happiness, "I'm just so glad to see you now!"
"Yes, now where is this young man we have to meet." Carl looked around trying to find the blonde head of Hermione's husband.
"Dad, quiet, people aren't supposed to know." Hermione quietly warned her father, "He's waiting for us somewhere a little more inconspicuous, both he and I have certain images to uphold."
Hermione grabbed hold of her parent's hands and pulled them along; her suit case was shrunken in her pocket so she wouldn't have to worry about it.
She pulled them through the barrier and walked between them, swinging their arms as if she were a little child. Her heart soared as she reminded herself that she was with her parents again.
Hermione pulled them along to a café at the far end of the train station and looked around for her husband. For some reason she couldn't see him sitting at any of the tables.
"Where is he, sweetie?" Carl asked his daughter.
"I don't know." Hermione scanned the café once more, still seeing no sign of her elusive husband.
Draco sat in the quiet café watching the pedestrians pass by; he'd been sitting there for most of the day and had finished most of the holiday homework. He had felt it was a little risky doing his school work at a muggle café but no one but a little kid had bothered him all day and the kid hadn't been able to read what Draco was doing anyway.
He now watched as a beautiful young woman walked into the café and looked around. She was accompanied by two people who were obviously her parents and she seemed to be looking for someone; Draco smiled happily knowing that it was him she was looking for.
He watched her for about a minute, a smirk on his face; she didn't recognise him. When he had finally decided that he'd had enough of watching Hermione try and find him he lifted his hand in the air to wave Hermione over.
Hermione seemed to spot the movement, it still took her a moment to realise that it was her husband that she was looking at. She smiled at Draco and moved over to him bring her parents in tow.
"Hi Draco!" She smiled then turned to her Mum and Dad, "Mum, Dad; I would like you to meet my husband, Draco Malfoy. Draco, allow me to introduce my mum and dad, Carl and Evelyn Granger."
"Pleasure to meet you." Draco stood and dipped his head in greeting.
"Not really the first time though, is it?" Carl eyed Draco suspiciously.
Draco shifted uneasily. "I was hoping that we could forget that previous occasion."
Carl seemed to think about this for a minute before he extended his hand. "Welcome to the family, lad."
Draco smiled. Well it was closer to a smirk, but you could tell that there was friendly intent behind it. "Thank you sir." Draco took Mr. Granger's hand and shook it warmly.
Mrs. Granger looked positively happy that everything was going to be ok: that they had a chance to remain in Hermione's life. When Draco turned to meet her she pulled him into a motherly hug.
Hermione was standing behind her mother and she felt inclined to laugh at Draco's shocked face. As far as she could tell he'd never been hugged like that before; Hermione seriously doubted Narcissa's ability to be motherly.
"Well, now that we've all met, how about we go back to the house," Carl offered his daughter his arm. "I'm sure you are both tired from the journey."
Hermione smiled. "That sounds like a good idea." She took her father's arm and as they walked back to the car she was amused to see Draco offer his arm to her mother.
Hermione stood in her room taking in all of the familiar sights and smells. It was just as she remembered it; her parents hadn't moved at thing since she was dragged from her comfort zone only a few months ago.
She heard Draco walk in behind her.
"Thank you." She turned around and smiled at him.
Draco looked at Hermione puzzled, "For what?"
"For being a gentleman to my parents today."
"Well I couldn't very well be rude to them, could I?" Draco shrugged off the compliment.
"Thank you anyway." Hermione wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a warm embrace.
Draco remained silent; he had a strange feeling in his stomach that he didn't seem to be able to sift. He wasn't sure he wanted to stay here; he knew it would make Hermione happy, but this was a muggle home.
"Hermione?" Draco cautiously tried to gain Hermione's attention.
"Yes?" Hermione looked up at Draco.
"Do we have to stay here?" Draco spoke his words slowly, as his nervous about the response it would bring.
"What do you mean?" Hermione looked at the Slytherin carefully.
"I've never stayed in a muggle house before and…" Draco glanced about the room, "… it doesn't feel right."
"Why not?" Hermione's mood was partly upset that Draco didn't want to stay at her parents house and partly curious about why.
"It just doesn't feel right." Draco pulled away from Hermione and began pacing, "Don't get me wrong, I like your parents, they are great people; but…"
"But what?" Hermione asked a dangerous edge to her voice that Draco picked up on.
"But… I've spent my whole childhood being told how inferior muggles are, how much they are beneath us magic folk. I'm trying not to think that, I really am, but I may need to take baby steps on this one. I feel really uneasy about staying here, sleeping in this house."
"Oh Draco!" Hermione laughed, "You've spent your whole life living at a manor where half the passageways lead to death, and traps are laid out to ensnare anyone stupid enough to stumble upon them. Evil flows through that house, you can feel it. This place," Hermione gestured to the walls around her, "has none of that. It is safe, calm and doesn't try and kill you. How can you possibly feel safer at the Manor than here?"
"Well, when you say it like that!" Draco rolled his eyes, "It's not about feeling safe; it's about the weird feeling in my gut that I can't shake that says this place is muggle and part of me still believes the drivel that Lucius sprouts, that is saying to get out fast."
"Well, when I was at the Manor, I'd say I was in a worse position." Hermione tried to show Draco he was over-reacting. "I swear that house wanted me dead. I had no friends to keep me safe, no way to get home and I had to spend time with my worst enemy. I'd say that seeing as you have me here to help you through this that you'll be fine."
"But…" Draco tried to find grounding for his fears… Sorry, not fears: worries, "It just doesn't feel right."
"It'll be fine." Hermione reassured Draco.
"I hope you're right." Draco glanced about the room as if trying to find something there to take away the sensation in his abdomen.
There was only a few days left before Christmas and Hermione was running about in a panic. The entire Weasley family was going to be coming over along with Remus Lupin; Hermione had figured he'd want to spend Christmas with Harry and had invited him along. That was eleven extra people who were going to be staying with the Grangers. They were all going to be spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas night at the little house and Hermione had no idea where they were going to fit all the extra people.
Draco was the one who had finally come up with a solution. He had summoned several elves from the manor and they had been helping to magically enlarge the Grangers' guest bedroom and they were also bringing spare beds from the Manor. It worked out quite well in the end; they had partitioned off the large room with makeshift walls and even managed to create a further two bathrooms to accommodate the extra people.
The house elves then agreed to stay on to assist with the Christmas celebrations. Well, they didn't have a lot of choice, as Draco told them to. They were currently working under Mrs. Granger's guidance in decorating the house.
The day before Christmas the house was full of magical Christmas cheer. There was a large tree in the living room which Hermione and her parents had roped Draco into assisting them decorate. It was the first time he had done anything of the sort; apparently the Malfoy family didn't really go for the whole Christmas thing, being a muggle-originated holiday. There was tinsel hung around the room and little bells that chimed out Christmas carols quietly in the background.
The doorbell rang as Draco and Hermione were taking what Draco considered to be a well-deserved rest from their assistance in preparations. They were both reclining on a large sofa in the living room. Draco had his arms wrapped around Hermione and they were enjoying the quiet moment by gazing into the mesmerizing light of the fire.
"Could one of you kids please get that?" Evelyn called from the kitchen.
Hermione tried to wriggle out of Draco's grasp. "Let go, I have to get the door."
"You are not going anywhere, my sweet." Draco purred in her ear.
Hermione smiled sweetly at her husband, "Aw, that's so nice of you…" Draco smiled, pleased he could evoke such praise from his wife. "Thank you for volunteering to get the door."
Draco frowned as he dumped Hermione back onto the sofa, "The woman is turning me into a house-elf with all this bossing me about," Draco muttered to himself.
"What was that?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing, darling." came Draco's overly-sweet response.
Hermione stood up and followed Draco to the door, creeping along behind him. The doorbell rang for a second time.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming." Draco muttered irritably. He pulled the door open just as Hermione dropped a Santa hat on his head. The result was a rather amusing sight greeting Harry and Ron as stared at Draco looking up at the object that had suddenly landed on his head with a bemused expression.
Everyone stood still for about four seconds before both Harry and Ron cracked up laughing. Both had to turn their heads away to try and regain composure.
"Never expected you to get into the Christmas spirit." Ron managed finally. He turned back to face Draco and cracked up laughing again.
"What seems to be the hold up, boys?" Arthur asked as he came up behind the small group.
"Nothing important." Harry fought to keep a straight face.
"Oh come off it, it is not that funny." Draco glared as he pulled off the Santa hat and threw it at Hermione.
"Humour is in the eye of the beholder." Hermione giggled.
By this time all of the Weasley family was crowded into the small foyer of the Granger residence; needless to say it was a tight squeeze. Evelyn somehow managed to join the gathering and with a bit of manoeuvring she had gotten Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to hand their bags over to Draco and Hermione, the younger generation was sent upstairs to settle into the room and the parents were making their way to the lounge. Remus had also arrived and he was accompanying the parents.
Hermione managed to lead the large group up to the enlarged guest room; standing just outside the room, she waited until everyone was watching. "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the guest room." She swung open the door and everyone gasped at the splendour of the room. Draco had gone to a lot of effort to make the room look nice, and his standard of nice was very high. There were large four poster beds in a deep mahogany lining the room in a style reminiscent of the Hogwarts dorms. The floor was a soft, thick red carpet and there were several beautiful paintings of landscapes about the room, all of which moved.
"Wow!" Ron walked into the room, "I didn't think that muggle houses had this much room."
"They don't," Ginny rolled her eyes, "this was obviously done for this event. Right?" She looked at Hermione expectantly.
Hermione nodded, "Took us all week to set it up."
"Borrowed most of the furniture from the manor," Draco gestured to the rich, old furnishings, "that's why there are no red and gold drapes and blankets; a Malfoy would never abide having Gryffindor colours."
"Except our Hermione." Ron slung his arm around Hermione's shoulder to emphasise his point.
"Yes, well…" Draco muttered, "I'm working on getting her into greens."
Hermione shook her head and turned around to talk to the Weasleys still in the room. Bill, Charlie and Percy had left after a very quick look. Draco grabbed this opportunity to change Hermione's Santa hat from red to green with a wave of his wand; no one seemed to notice.
The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully: Hermione noticed the change in her hat's colour and yelled at Draco before changing it back. He waited five minutes and the hat went back to green; this continued all day.
Everyone had gone to bed early "so Santa will come"; all of the children had groaned at this as the youngest was sixteen. Hermione and Draco were now lying in Hermione's room staring up at the ceiling. The young couple were about to drift off to sleep when there was a gentle knock at the door.
Hermione snuggled in closer to the covers and warmth. "Who is it?" she called softly, not wanting to venture beyond the warmth of her bed.
"It's us," Harry's voice filtered through the door, "can we come in?"
Hermione felt Draco's warm breath on the back of her neck, "Don't let them in." he whispered.
Hermione twisted around so she was looking Draco straight in the face; her face held a determined look, "Sure."
The bedroom door opened slowly so as to avoid any unnecessary creaking and shut again with equal care when the-boy-who-lived and his best friend were inside.
"Hope we're not interrupting anything." Ron asked cheekily.
Draco's pillow suddenly was flung across the room and hit Ronald square in the face, dropping away to reveal a very bemused and shocked expression.
"Hey! I was still using that!" Draco cried. He considered pouting, decided against it and settled for stealing the pillow from under Hermione's head in retaliation.
Harry picked up the projectile from the door and rested it on his knees as he sat in the desk using the chair for his feet. "We have a plan." Harry smiled as he discovered that he now had Hermione's full attention.
"No." Came Draco's muffled voice, "Whatever harebrained scheme you have: no. You may not involve my wife."
"Hermione's participation in this plan is optional, yours is not." Ron glared at the blonde.
"What do you mean my involvement is not optional; are you saying that you'll force me to do this?" Draco sat up and sent his trademark sneer in the red heads direction.
"No, that is definitely not what we are saying," Harry leapt to the aid of his friend, "we are merely saying that for this plan to work, we need your cooperation."
"You need my help?" Draco raised his eyebrow, "I never thought that I would live to see the day that the famous Harry Potter needed my help, the help of a Malfoy."
"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry snapped, "Are you going to help us or not?"
"I'm not agreeing to anything until you tell me what it is that we are doing." Draco crossed his arms as he rested against the headboard.
"We plan to go to Malfoy Manor and look for this orb." Harry explained offhandedly, he was clearly trying to make it sound like a rather simple, minor thing.
"What!" Draco sat up, practically yelling, "Are you nuts!"
"Quiet!" Ron hissed, "Do you want to wake up the whole house?"
"Do you have any idea how dangerous it would be?" Draco grimaced at some of the horrible thoughts running through his head. "If my father were to catch you."
"But he won't; he isn't going to be there." Hermione pointed out, seeing the pieces in the plan.
"But if you turn up there and you don't have Malfoy blood…" Draco started.
Harry cut him off, "That's why we need you. I mean, unless I'm mistaken, you have Malfoy blood."
"Still…" Draco protested.
"Look Malfoy, we have to find this orb and put a stop to this plan or else people are going to die." Harry explained, his tone of voice suggested that he didn't really feel like having to explain.
"The orb is only after you." Draco sneered, "If you are killed by it then who's to say that it won't just stop."
"Draco, don't be stupid. This is Voldemort we're talking about; if Harry is dead then he won't hold back, he will kill people at will and there won't be anyone to stop him." Hermione looked pleadingly into Draco's sliver eyes, "Please, won't you help us?"
Draco looked into the pleading eyes of his wife, 'Damn her to Hades for getting me to do this.'
The blond man pushed off the sheets, frowning at the cold air, and stood up. "Alright, I'll help you search the Manor, but if you ever tell anyone that I helped you, Potter… So help me I'll make you wonder what made Voldemort so horrifying in comparison to what I'll do to you."
"Whatever." Harry smiled disbelievingly.
The two Malfoys quickly dressed. Harry, Ron and, to the other two's surprise, Draco waited outside the door after Hermione had kicked them out. They now all stood in the small bedroom.
Then, after Draco gave them the exact location, they disapparated.