An Untitled Unfolding
Chapter One: Narcissa
Chapter Summary: Hermione has just moved in with the Malfoy's and is reminiscing on the circumstances that put her there.
Story Summary: A Hermion Granger/Blaise Zabini fic (with more chapters comes a better summary; with more reviews comes more chapters...think about it)
Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Harry Potter or any affiliated characters/insignia...
Hermione stared in fear at Lucius' maniacal face, racking her brain with some way to get out of this situation. But she couldn't think of anything. She may be the best witch in her class, but Lucius could block anything she threw at him. Then her beating would be ten times worse. She couldn't run; there was no where to run to. This was her only home.
So she just cowered as she backed herself further and further into the corner of the cold basement dungeons. Lucius watched her; absorbed her fear; felt it in his every sense. He stared at her, and Hermione just stared back at his cold gray eyes, too afraid to look away. Then a crack of light entered the room. A second later the door was opened entirely, spilling light onto Lucius' various devices of torture.
Narcissa entered, her face unreadable. She went straight up to Lucius and whispered something to him, now sporting a seductive look. Hermione then realized that Narcissa must have known Hermione was down there with Lucius and was trying to save her only daughter.
Hermione had mixed emotions about her newfound mother. She hated her for ignoring Hermione all these years, but she knew that deep down Narcissa did love her, and was risking quite a beating for Hermione's sake. Because Lucius also knew that Narcissa was only down there to save her bastard of a daughter. She hadn't shown a hint of warmth towards him in years. He knew she was playing games with him, but he was hungry for her body, and to show her just how angry he was with her.
Lucius looked at Hermione with loathing and spat, "leave" at her with the most venomous voice he could muster. Hermione paused for a moment, concern for her mother overriding her basic instinct to get out of there as soon as her feet would allow. This was a mistake, for she could see the pain in Narcissa's eyes. And it tore Hermione apart. Lucius raised his wand, "You dare defy me" he said, half statement, half question. With a quick glance back, Hermione fled the room, but not fast enough to hear her mother being thrown against the cold, wet brick of the dungeon.
She ran up the stairs through the living room, where Draco was lounging in front of the fire, reading, up more stairs to her room. She threw herself on her immense bed and cried for hours. She could hear her mother screaming from the dungeons. A few minutes after the screaming ceased, Hermione heard heavy footsteps in the hallway. They paused outside her room, and she could see the shadow they cast from the crack under her door. She held her breath, praying Lucius would pass by and continue on his way. He did.
She waited until she thought Lucius settled in, then left her room with as much stealth as she could muster. She went downstairs and saw Draco gone, probably in bed by now. She continued on her way, further down into the dungeons. There she found her mother huddled in a corner, her shredded clothes barely covering her.
Hermione ran over and hugged her, trying to warm her up. They sat there hugging for some time. Then Hermione helped her stand up and walk up the stairs. They went to the kitchen, where Hermione found Bucksrey, one of the Malfoy's house-elves, and asked for some bandages and salve. The elf brought the requested items slick as a whistle, and Hermione bandaged up her mother as best she could, using her wand to help speed along the healing process.
Then, together, they went up to Hermione's room, and went to bed. Neither of them said a word to the other through this entire process.
The next morning, Hermione woke up alone. At first she felt calm, serene, with her huge French windows, white billowy curtains around her bed. But then she remembered where she was and what had transpired last night, and a feeling of fear and intense pain replaced her momentary happiness.
She laid in her bed for about an hour after she had woken, trying to recapture that feeling of abandon she'd felt earlier. She judged it to be about twelve when she finally got up. She made sure she donned one of the dresses Narcissa had bought her before going downstairs. Lunch - actually everything - was a formal affair at the Malfoy mansion. She had already made the mistake of thinking she could eat breakfast in her pajamas. She was NOT about to do something like that again. That was a terrible memory. That was the first time Lucius had beat her. Mind you, all he did was whip her, but it was quite a beating nonetheless, especially for her, coming from a family that didn't believe in spanking.
Hermione thought about her family for a while. She tried not to think about her parents as much as possible, because the memories were too painful. But now, she gave herself a few minutes to reflect on that fateful day that changed her life.
She had been at school when it happened. She remembered being in Potions, and taking a note from Harry and Ron, because she knew Snape was in a bad mood, and if he was the note he'd give them detention on the spot. But Snape looked at Hermione just as she was grabbing the note away from Harry. He asked her in his uninterested voice to come to his desk. She thought for sure she was going to be punished for passing notes. But instead of give her detention, Snape only told her that she needed to proceed to Professor Dumbledore's office immediately.
Of course Hermione immediately thought the worse, which at that time was that she was going to be expelled. But as she entered Dumbledore's office, her entire view of "the worse" changed. Dumbledore looked at her with such sympathy when she came in, she thought for sure she was being kicked out. But it was worse than that, far worse. Dumbledore instead, asked her to have a seat. "Lemon drop?" he asked, out of habit.
"No thank you" Hermione immediately answered, her mouth too dry to suck on a lemon drop. She looked up at Dumbledore, afraid to make eye contact.
"Hermione," he started, his voice full of concern. Hermione steeled herself against his words, already imaging her future without Hogwarts.
"Hermione," he said again, and Hermione looked up this time, right into Dumbledore's eyes.
"There was an accident about an hour ago, at your house." Hermione cocked her head, surprised at where this conversation was going.
"At my house?" she asked slightly confused.
"Yes, at your house. Apparently your - stove, is it - was leaking gas. The investigators think your father was about cook dinner for himself and your mother. When he turned the stove on, the house" his voice got lower as he said this last line, "caught on fire" he said, when actually it was more like the house blew up.
"Well are my parents ok, did they make it out of the house?" Hermione asked, fear all over her face.
Dumbledore sighed and looked down. Hermione's eyes began to water.
"No. They both perished in the fire."
Hermione's world disappeared. She couldn't think of anything. She didn't react at all because her brain had ceased to function. Hermione knew Dumbledore would never lie to her about something like this, but she asked him if it was the truth anyway. He assured her that was not lying to her, and offered his sympathies.
But Hermione was numb. She just sat there for a few minutes. Then, all at once, she exploded. Her eyes streamed with tears. They wouldn't stop, even if she had tried to stop crying. Dumbledore didn't know how to comfort her - the child had just lost her parents - so he requested Harry and Ron come to his office and escort Hermione back to the Gryffindor tower.
The next day, Professor McGonagall took her to the site of her old home. They stayed at the Leaky Cauldron that night. The next day was the funeral. All of her friends, as well as her parents' friends and colleagues were there. After she watched the coffins being lowered she stopped to take in her surroundings. She noticed a beautiful blonde woman a little apart from the rest of the funeral party. The woman seemed to notice Hermione at the same time Hermione noticed her. Both stared at each other for a long time. Hermione couldn't figure out who the woman was. Hermione had never met her and she was too finely dressed to be a friend of her parents.
Harry had been trying to talk to her, but she was absorbed by this stranger. He finally gave up and just sat silent. Hermione deiced she needed to find out who this lady was. And she was welcome to anything that would take her mind off her parents for a while.
Hermione made her way over to this lady, while everyone was heading back to the church to eat. When she reached her, she gave a weak smile. The lady gave a smile back. She seemed genuinely happy to see Hermione.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but, who are you?" Hermione asked awkwardly.
"I was a friend of your fathers, a very long time ago" she replied. Then she went on to say "you look so much like" her voice caught.
"Like who?" Hermione asked, quite curious.
"Like your father." The lady said hastily.
"Oh," Hermione replied, a bit disappointed.
"You better get on your way" the lady said, nodding towards Harry and Ron, who were yelling at Hermione that they had to leave.
Hermione paused for a moment, then told the woman goodbye and walked towards Ron and Harry. It wasn't until they asked her who she was talking to that she realized that she had never gotten the woman's name.
Later that day, Professor McGonagall came into Hermione's room at the Leaky Cauldron. She asked Hermione if they could have a talk. Hermione said yes, and then the Professor sat down in one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace. Hermione occupied the other one. Professor McGonagall noticed the untouched food tray by Hermione's bed. The child probably hadn't been eating for days.
"Hermione, I don't know if you've thought much about this, but you're still legally a child." Hermione's confused look showed her that Hermione had not thought about it.
"As a child, you need a guardian." As she said this, comprehension dawned on Hermione's face.
"Hermione, I don't know if you knew this, but as we were going through your records, we found your birth certificate. The name on it was not your mothers, or at least, the mother you had grown up with."
Hermione looked, confused, and tired, and angry that there was still MORE stuff screwing up her life. But she was curious to know who it was. Her father had told her that her real mother had died during child birth. When she was around three or four years old he married Marie, the woman Hermione had grown to love as her mother.
"So who is it?" She asked McGonagall.
"After some research, we've found that the woman who actually gave birth to you was," she paused; It seemed she still didn't believe what she was saying, "Narcissa Malfoy."
A/N: So...how d'ya like it? Let me know if there are any discrepancies...I wrote this in kind of a hurry.