"You have a brother?!"
"SHHH!" I yelled at Hermione's thunderstruck expression
"But –But you have a brother?!" she repeated not lowering her voice in the slightest
"Yes Hermione, now stop yelling!" I whispered roughly, looking around to see if anyone was listening. I doubted anyone worth caring about would be here but either way I didn't want to attract anyone's attention. I had come to visit Hermione at her home in the Muggle world, needing a little advice about Nikolai. I still had no idea what I was going to do about the wedding and having very little knowledge about Muggles I needed her
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had a brother?!" she yelled as I rubbed my temples to calm myself. Why did she always want me to tell her everything? But it wasn't completely her fault, this was surprising news. I had known her almost three years now and had never mentioned him. Unlike purebloods, or even half-blood wizards, she hadn't been raised in our society so she didn't know about him. She had a right to be reacting this way but it still frustrated me that she wouldn't be quiet
"It's not something we talk about…" My tone brought her attention to me. She was about to yell again but something in my face made rethink it. She sighed and finally lowered her voice
"How come you never mentioned him until now?"
"It's a long story… I need your advice with something and for that I needed you to know." Well not so much that I needed her to know but rather she would have bombarded me with questions anyway. "The only other person who knows that he's alive outside my family is Draco"
"What do you mean 'knows he's alive'?" she asked. I sighed and began to say the words I had been practicing in case I decided to tell anyone about him
"I have a brother, his name is Nikolai. He's twenty-one now and like me he is a pureblood, of course. We were raised as all, well most, purebloods; to think we're better than others. It's a belief my parents still try to force upon me. About a year before I started Hogwarts my brother was just finishing school at Durmstrang Institute and decided to go on a trip to London. He was staying near Muggles but my parents didn't think anything would come of it so they agreed. My brother hated Muggles as much as most other pureblood wizards and none of us expected for anything to happen…"
"What happened?" Hermione asked softly, engrossed in my story. I gave her a small smile before continuing
"He kept putting his return day off. We would get letters from him saying that he wanted to stay a little longer because he found something interesting. After he stayed a couple of months longer than he was supposed to my parents became anxious and insisted he return. He did but after that Nikolai started acting differently. He kept sending letters to someone yet always denied it when asked. One night during dinner he told us that the person who he had been sending letters to, and the one who he had stayed so long in London for, was a Muggle girl he had grown to love"
"What?" Hermione gasped making me smile again. She leaned in even more than she already had, not wanting to miss a word. "What happened next?"
"Well I was more surprised than anything. I never really cared for Muggles, no offense, but I knew that my brother had a practically distaste for them. I thought he was joking at first but his face remained serious. Our parents didn't take it so lightly. He and my father yelled at each other for hours. My father can be a strict man but he had never yelled at either of us before… It got to the point where my father got our servants to pack my brother's bags and set them by the door."
"They kicked him out?!" I nodded not smiling this time
"They disowned him. Said that as long as he associated himself with her he was not welcomed home. My brother, who cared very much for her, simply nodded and walked out the door, not even bothering to pick up the bags that they had packed. The only things he took with him were the robes he was wearing, his broom and his owl, Yasha."
"Wait, but he is alive… right?" she asked noticing my expression. I started rubbing my hands anxiously and sighed
"Yes, he is. For a while I didn't hear from him, I didn't know where he was or if he was okay. I didn't own my own owl then and it's not like I could ask my parents for one of theirs after what happened. It was months before I heard from him again but he finally sent me a letter. It didn't say much other than he was okay and not to worry but that's easier said than done. My parents refused to speak of him but eventually word got out that he had left for a Muggle. They covered it up by saying he died in London without their means to support him and people believed it. Still, so many people spoke so many ill words of him that I could barely take it. Mostly they called him a blood-traitor… I hate that word" I added with a growl
"He's not a traitor" Hermione said softly rubbing my arm
I could feel myself shaking slightly as I always did when I remembered what they said. Even Draco had called him that… That's what our fight had been about before we went to Hogwarts, and why I hadn't been so enthusiastic to see him. He had only done it once but to have someone so close hurt you was worse than having a million strangers try. He had practically begged me to forgive him once the word had left his lips but it took until I saw him next to me on the Slytherin table to finally forgive him. I knew he had felt bad and hadn't mentioned it again until that second time in the dungeon…
"The thing is…" I started, pushing Draco out of mind. "What I wanted to talk to you about was that, well, he's getting married to her… He invited me to the wedding"
"Are you going?" she asked watching my expression carefully
"I want to, I haven't seen him in years, but I don't know much about Muggles. After what happened with my brother I decided it was best not to push my parents on the subject"
"Do they know I'm…" Hermione let the unfinished sentence hang in the air. I nodded
"Muggle-born? Yeah they know. My father is a powerful man, he knew before I even told him"
"And they're okay with it?" she asked, her voice still careful
"Well they're not thrilled but they know I'm stubborn, and not wanting to have a repeat of my brother either, decided to give me a little freedom in that department"
"So they know you're going to the wedding?"
"No. They still haven't forgiven him… I doubt they ever will if he goes through with it… But I'm still thinking of how I'm going to convince them to let me go off to London when that's exactly what my brother had done…" It was tough but I had to find a way. So far I had a few ideas but none were stable enough to actually work, yet at least. And with the visit to Hermione they might think I'm spending too much time near Muggles as is. The problem was it was coming up soon, it was already August…
"Well what do you want to know?" she smiled
"What exactly happens at a Muggle wedding?" Hermione thought about my question before answering
"Well I've never been to a non-Muggle wedding but from what I read in Muggle Studies I'd say they're not that different. Except the obvious no magic rule they're quite similar."
"So all I have to do is not use magic" I repeated mostly to myself. Hermione nodded but still looked thoughtful. I smiled guessing what she was thinking. "So what do you want to know?"
"Last year, you told me that a Muggle changed your mind about the whole pureblood superiority thing… Where you talking about your brother's fiancée?" I nodded but flinched a little at the word. I didn't like to think of her as his fiancée. She was just his Muggle…
"If she was worth more to my brother than all he could have had at our Manor then she couldn't have been that bad…"
"But you still don't like her" Hermione guessed
"It's not that I don't like her" I sighed looking at my hands on my lap.
"But…" she pressed on
"But… she did take my brother from me… That's not something one gets over quickly"
"Well I'm glad that you're going. And that you came to visit me" she added with a bigger smile
"Of course. Your parents seem okay too" I said though I wondered if that sounded rude; I wasn't used to speaking kindly about Muggles. If it did she didn't show it
"What would Malfoy say if he saw you here" she said with dark humor in her voice
"Let's not go there" I suggested making her laugh. After a little more discussion about the wedding we soon went back inside to where her parents were waiting for us
Hermione's parents weren't that bad. They were kind people and were friendly without a reason besides to be friendly. They had nothing to gain from my family and I doubted they even knew how influential my father could be so I appreciated their attitude. It was strange seeing how they did things too, although rather interesting. We were given dinner which had been somehow done without the use of any sort of magic. Muggles were resourceful to say the least
After we finished our meal Hermione and I excused ourselves as she took me on a little tour of her little home. It was a cute place with only two floors. Besides the living room and kitchen area they had three rooms and a sort of office. Hermione told me it was a library but that didn't seem likely as they only seemed to have a few dozen books there including the dictionaries and other things that weren't actual books. Everything here seemed to be at a smaller scale than that of my home. Even the ceilings were lower. I didn't understand how Muggles lived like this. Their pictures didn't move, they cooked without magic, and with apparently had no one to help them
"What?" Hermione asked curious to my frown
"So, you do everything yourselves? Like with your hands" I asked seriously though she looked like I had just told her a joke
"Not all of us can afford servants" she answered with an amused smile. "Since I'm the only one who can use magic but can't because I'm underage the only other option is manual labor"
"Muggles really are strange…" She laughed at my remark before showing me to her room. We stepped inside to a lot of chirping and found two owls moving about in her room. Well one little owl was inside, the other kept hitting itself against her window. Hermione rushed over to it and opened it completely to let him in
"Errol" she said in a sweet tone to the old looking owl
"That's your owl?" I had never seen hers from a close distance but that didn't seem like it
"No, these are both Ron's owls. But why did he send both?" she asked herself detaching the letters from their legs. She looked a little shocked when she looked at the one from the owl Errol and turned to me.
"What?"
"This one's for you" she said handing it to me. I understood her surprised look now and took the letter from her. Why would Ron send me a letter? She turned to the one the little owl had sent and read hers as I read mine. When I saw the writing realized it wasn't from Ron but rather from the two Weasleys who I actually considered friends. It had their writing, both of theirs, interchanging randomly much like how they spoke. I sat on the bed next to Hermione and read it
Hey Kitty! Doing well we hope
We just wanted to know if you would like to join us for the Quidditch World Cup. Our father got us tickets you see
He said he could probably manage an extra one for you but we'd have to know soon so you should probably ask that scary dad of yours
Or we could ask him, we'd be okay with that
As long as he doesn't kill us
It's on Monday
August 22nd, in case you didn't know
We'll pick you up Sunday
Love George and Fred
"Is yours an invitation too?" I asked figuring if they invited me Ron invited her
"Yeah, are you going?" she asked leaning over to look at what Fred and George had written
"I just might. They have very convenient timing" I muttered smiling to myself
"What do you mean?"
"My brother's wedding is the 21st" I smiled down at the letter. They really did have impeccable timing