Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

Just like Hermione said, the healers discharged her that very day from St. Mungo's. There really was no point in keeping her there as she was perfectly healthy so they sent her home with a nurse who would stay with her for the rest of the day.

Once Hermione got back to her apartment, the nurse helped her pack most of her things into a magically enchanted suitcase that was pretty much bottomless. It wasn't very heavy either. By the time she had finished packing her things, her apartment was nearly empty. That's what the nurse had told her at least. When Hermione asked why she needed to pack her furniture, the nurse had only replied that it was so that none of her stuff would be stolen while she was away.

The nurse took her to the landlord who was a very kind man and Hermione told him that she would be away for an indefinite period of time. When Hermione asked if he would keep the apartment for her, he replied that he would as long as she still paid the rent.

Currently, Hermione was sitting on the floor in her apartment with her suitcase next to her. She was wearing a black jacket with her wand up her sleeve. The nurse had left this morning after making sure that Hermione was able to get ready alright.

At half past nine, Hermione heard a small "pop" and stood up. "Who's there?"

"It's me, mudblood," replied Malfoy sourly.

"Oh and where's the house elf? I was so sure that you'd send one," replied Hermione feeling around for her bag.

Draco rolled his eyes and picked her bag up for her. "You're lucky that my mother is such a sympathetic person. She's the one who made sure that I personally came and brought you." He gave her his arm and after fixing her with a steely gaze, said, "Take my arm. We're taking the floo since you can't apparate into the manor."

Hermione nodded in reply as she grabbed onto his arm with one hand. He guided her to the fireplace and pulled out a packet with green powder. Throwing it into the fireplace with grace, his eyes shone as the fire roared bright green. "Did you already close the floo network here?"

"They'll be here in about an hour to close it," she replied.

Draco nodded and pushed her in front of him. "Fire's in front of you, mudblood. Malfoy Manor."

Hermione yanked her hand from his arm and stood in front of the fire. She could feel the heat on her face and it was not at all pleasant. Taking a deep breath, she yelled, "Malfoy Manor!" Stepping into the fire, she disappeared with a roar.

Stepping out of the fireplace, she took a few steps forward and stopped. The room that she had stepped into reeked of magical energy. As an auror, she had been trained to feel for magical energies in order to detect magic. She could feel the energy in this room pulsating off of every corner.

"There's so much of it, isn't there?" asked a voice from next to her ear.

Hermione nodded and said, "I just wish I could see it." If she could see, she probably would have been able to see a multitude of dark colors swirling around the room. It looked dangerous but beautiful and breathtaking at the same time.

She felt Draco take the sleeve of her robe as he led her from the room. From what she could tell, she was walking on cold marble floors. It was a bit unnerving to hear only the clacking of her shoes and his while walking in utter silence.

"Where are we going, Malfoy?"

He turned to her as they were walking and replied, "My mother wanted to meet you as soon as we got here."

They continued walking and finally they stopped. "Why are we stopping?"

Draco rolled his eyes at her and hissed, "There's a door, mudblood. I need to open it."

Draco let go of Hermione and opened the golden double doors, which creaked loudly. He grabbed her sleeve again and managed to pull her into the room.

As soon as Hermione got into the room, she felt another sort of magic begin swirling around her body. It had a very weak presence though, as though it was there but not really there at the same time.

Draco steered Hermione to a chair as a pair of sharp blue eyes followed him. Then dropping her sleeve, he muttered, "Sit down." Hermione felt behind her for the handles of the chair and once she grasped them, she lowered herself into the chair. Draco turned to the pair of blue eyes that had been watching him and said, "Mother."

Sitting in front of Hermione on a lush green couch was a proud woman with white blond hair that gleamed magnificently. Her face had a few wrinkles here and there and she had an air of confidence about her. Her eyes shone eerily as she watched her son.

"So, you are Hermione Granger," said Narcissa Malfoy from the couch. Hermione nodded uncomfortably as the corner of Narcissa's mouth twitched. "I've heard so much about you."

Hermione nearly frowned. She gripped the arm rests on her seat and said, "Thank you for letting me stay here."

Narcissa merely smirked at Hermione and said, "Shame that you're a mudblood though."

Hermione resisted the urge to scream as she replied carefully, "I'm proud of who I am…who my parents are. Nothing will ever change that."

"Hmm…intelligent and beautiful as well, such a shame."

"Mother," said Draco looking at his mother through narrowed eyes. Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Yes?"

"You would do well to be quiet," replied Draco softly.

Narcissa rolled her eyes at her son and replied, "Oh posh, I'm only repeating what you've been telling me."

Hermione felt her cheeks grow red. If she could see, she would have seen Draco's face grow even paler than normal. "Mother, do be quiet."

"As you wish, dear." Narcissa squinted at Draco and said, "Don't you have somewhere to be right now?" Draco glared at his mother.

Hermione heard footsteps and called out, "Malfoy, where are you going?"

He turned back to her with an emotionless face and said, "Work. I unlike the rest of the occupants of this room have job." Hermione opened her mouth in indignation but was cut off by Draco saying, "Mr. Ringler said he'll meet with you next Tuesday about this situation." Draco turned on his heel once more and left the room closing the door behind him.

Narcissa turned back to Hermione as her son left and a small smile appeared on her face. She stood up and gracefully walked over to Hermione. "Why don't we go for a walk, Ms. Granger? I daresay that we'll both enjoy one." Narcissa pulled out her wand and muttered a few words. A moment later, a black cane appeared in her hand. She took Hermione's hand and placed it around the handle.

"What is this?"

"A cane, dear," replied Narcissa helping Hermione to her feet. Hermione cautiously got up and let the old woman take her right arm and lead her out of the room.

Once they got out, Narcissa said, "The Malfoy Manor happens to be notoriously famous for its many corridors. People who don't know their way around here could get lost and starve to death." Hermione's face grew pale. "But you won't have to worry about that because you will be memorizing you're way around here."

"But I can't see…"

"Every Malfoy who has ever lived in here knows their way around here with their eyes closed. As you are staying here for an unclear period of time, it would be beneficial if you knew your way as well." Narcissa's blue eyes seemed to glow for a second but returned back to normal.

The two of them continued walking as Narcissa told Hermione more about the manor. It was undoubtedly the largest place apart from Hogwarts Hermione had ever heard of in her life. It consisted of four parts: the north wing, the south wing, the east wing, and the west wing. Had it been one of her friends telling her this, Hermione would have sarcastically said, "How original."

The room in whish she had first entered the manor was the East Blue study. There were two studies in each wing of the house but only the blue study was connected to the floo network. The room in which Hermione had met Narcissa had been the living room which connected to the entrance hall of the east wing. Then, in each wing, there was also a dining room, a formal sitting room, and four guest bedrooms. The kitchens were in the dungeons.

Hermione and Narcissa were currently in the back garden, which smelled heavenly. The only problem was that the pathway they were on was made of rocks causing Hermione to trip every few steps.

"Tell me about your family, then. Muggles, the whole lot of them?"

Hermione reached out blindly to smell a flower that was next to her and replied, "Yes…my mum's got one sister who lives in America and my dad has two brothers. One lives in Scotland and the other lives in Canada. My grand parents are all dead."

"Careful, the thorns of these black roses are poisonous."

Hermione rose an eyebrow as she pulled her hand back. As much as she wanted to see what black roses looked like, she didn't want to get poisoned from them.

"What do your parents do?" asked Narcissa, sweeping a strand of blond hair out of her eyes.

"They are dentists."

"Pardon?"

"They are err…teeth doctors. People come to them to get their teeth cleaned and to get their teeth fixed if they aren't straight."

"Ah, I suppose they fixed your teeth then?" Narcissa smiled at Hermione though Hermione couldn't see it. "Draco wrote me a letter once telling me how your teeth reminded him of a beaver."

Hermione let out a small laugh. "Well, it's really thanks to him that my teeth are like this."

Narcissa helped Hermione up a set of steps and into a chair and asked, "How so?"

Hermione grinned, recalling the memory. "Well, it was during fourth year…Harry and Malfoy got into a fight. Harry's curse hit Goyle or someone andMalfoy'scurse hit me…my teeth began growing and growing. So when I went to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey asked me to tell her when I wanted her to stop and so I have these now." Narcissa clapped her hands and a house elf appeared with a pop causing Hermione to jump. "What was that?"

"A house elf with tea," muttered Narcissa turning her nose up at the creature who handed her a tea pot and two cups. She waved her hand at it and it disappeared. She poured tea into both the cups and handed it to Hermione. Narcissa took a sip and said, "You called my son Malfoy."

"That's what I've always called him," replied Hermione uneasily, sipping her tea.

"And he calls you mudblood…" Hermione nodded, feeling around for the table to set her cup down on. Narcissa sighed and took the cup from Hermione.

"Mrs. Malfoy-

"Narcissa, please."

"Right, would you mind telling me a bit about your family? I've never heard much more than what people usually hear." Hermione tightened her grip on her cane. She knew that she was pushing her luck here. Not many people knew much about the Malfoy family. They kept everything secret. Hermione felt that since Narcissa had asked about her family, it was only right that she ask about their family.

Narcissa eyed Hermione beady from behind her cup. Slowly putting it down, she said, "Before I married Lucius, I was a Black…you must already know plenty of history about that side of my family." Narcissa threw Hermione a disgusted glare enjoying the fact that the girl couldn't see it. "Lucius's family on the other hand is much purer than mine. The Malfoys have been around since before Hogwarts started. They were immersed in the Dark Arts from the start…they would be appalled at how Draco has turned out."

"And you're not?" asked Hermione.

Narcissa gave a fake laugh and said, "You funny little girl, of course not, though I can't say that I'm too pleased about it. It's his choice to do as he pleases. Besides, he's been a lot better since Lucius…"

Hermione, though she couldn't see the woman knew that she was truly sad about Lucius's death. Hermione couldn't care less that Lucius was dead but it could have been possible that maybe there was a side to him that actually cared for Narcissa. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be…the healers did all they could to help him. They were very close friends of his, in fact." Narcissa took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. "It must weigh heavy on their consciences that they could not save him."

Hermione took this in with as little emotion as possible. It all seemed a bit strange to her. Lucius Malfoy was being treated by healers who were friends of his. Friends who were most likely immersed in Dark Magic and would have found means to keep him alive. From what she remembered, Lucius Malfoy died of severe blood loss. Apparently by the time the potion had been made, he was dead.

Narcissa sniffed and put her handkerchief away. She helped Hermione out of the chair and the two of them started walking back towards the manor. Once they were inside, Narcissa took Hermione to the south wing, where her room was. Her room wasn't one of the normal guest rooms. It was about four times the size of the guest room. It was about as big as Hermione's whole apartment.

Once Hermione had gotten inside, Narcissa snapped her fingers. Another house elf appeared and bowed to her. "This is Hermione Granger," began Narcissa in an arrogant tone. "She will be staying with us and is to be treated like family, do I make myself clear?" The house elf squeaked in reply and disappeared. "Stupid creatures, don't you think?"

Hermione merely kept quiet for fear that if she opened her mouth, she would begin yelling at the woman.

"Now, Hermione, dinner will be at 6:30 sharp. I expect you to be in the west dining room dressed nicely. Call for an elf if you need one."

Hermione managed to choke out a, "Thank you."

Narcissa smirked at the younger woman before turning. Just as she was about to leave, she turned around and faced Hermione. "Ms. Granger, ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to see glimpses of things to come…"

"Like a seer?"

Narcissa laughed harshly causing Hermione to shiver and said, "No…it's more of when something bad is yet to come." She approached Hermione and said, "Just before you came, I saw something involving my son."

Hermione bit her lip and asked, "Is-was it important?"

"Hermione, my son is the most important thing in my life. I cannot even begin to describe what I saw. It was horrible."

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you telling me this?" Hermione lifted her cane up and began poking around to find something to sit on. She eventually found something, which she later found out was a table, and sat on it.

Narcissa's eyes were shining eerily again. "I believe that you can change what I saw…"

"But what did you see?"

Narcissa smiled at the girl and said, "Good afternoon, Ms. Granger."

Hermione sighed as she heard her door close. Narcissa Malfoy was exactly like her son. Neither of them gave a straight answer and it annoyed the hell out of Hermione. She liked knowing things. She liked knowing exactly what was going on so that she could be in control.

Hermione tapped around the room and presently found her suitcase, which was on top of her bed. She dropped it on the floor and climbed onto the bed. It wouldn't be that hard to sleep for her anymore. It would be permanently dark for her…