Chap 11: Meetings of old friends and new family

Chap 11 summary: Hermione gets a scare, while Grandmere is caught. Narcissa isn't being any help, while Hermione meets one of her old friends and some of her new family...

Hermione turned around. "Draco?" When she realized it was Draco, she left out a sigh of relief.

"Were you just outside?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah….did you hear anything?" Draco asked, suspiciously.

"Yes. I heard some people talking. Why? Were you talking to someone?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at Draco. "Was I supposed to hear you talking to someone?"

"No, of course not…anyway why are you up?"

"Why are you asking so many questions? Are you guilty of something?" Before Draco could even open his mouth; the front door opened, and in crept Grandmere. She was tip toeing and softly closed the door behind her.

"WHAT are you doing outside, Grandmere? In the middle of the night, at that." Hermione added, as she went to Grandmere. Who was dressed up in her usual black and had slight make up on her face. She first was surprised, but then came back to her calm and cool self.

"I waz doing nothingz. What 're you doing up?" She countered.

"What is it with everyone, asking me that? I have a right to be up, you know!" Hermione stared at both her Grandmere and Draco. Who were both looking as though she was the crazy one, as though she didn't have a right to be up at this time.

"O-kay, Hermione." Draco said as he opened the closet door and put his robe in.

"Why are you acting as though I'm a child? Were you talking to someone?" Draco just shook his head and continued to put away his things.

"Why aren't you answering me?" She questioned.

"Hermione, I wasn't talking to anyone. I saw the looks on your face and I was worried. So I asked you, if you heard anything. Don't worry, I wasn't doing anything." Draco then turned to her. "Now, I'm going to take a shower. Do you need to do anymore questioning?" Hermione looked down at her feet. She did feel somewhat like a prat. Keyword: Somewhat.

"I was-nothing." He then nodded his head and headed upstairs. Grandmere started to go up quietly leaving Hermione downstairs to finish her cookies and milk.

"Grandmere?" Grandmere stopped dead in her tracks, closing her eyes. "Where do you think your going? I'm not finished with you." Grandmere then opened her eyes and came back to the kitchen. She put on her best smile

"Yez, Hermione?" Hermione then smiled too.

"What were you doing outside at 3:00 am?" Hermione questioned, expecting some unbelievable answer.

"I was checking on some noise. I heard something, and decided to go the back of the house to check on it." Grandmere then started to head off, before being stopped by Hermione again.

"Come on, Grandmere. Tell the truth. Mum has been telling me about your 'late night' sneaking out meetings. What are you doing and who are you meeting?" Grandmere's smile then faded.

"Wellz, I don't have tell you everything. I am a grown woman, I have my own life." Grandmere then left the kitchen, stomping upstairs.

"What is with everyone?" Hermione said to herself. Eating her cookies and drinking her milk.

Next couple of weeks didn't go exactly as planned, naturally. Narcissa came over and took the mother-in-law from hell phrase to a whole next level. She wanted to do the wedding 'this way' or 'no, possibly couldn't. They're muggles.' She'll whisper to the women in diagon alley. Hermione would then turn to her mother and grandmere, who was pretty much occupied with the magical beings and of the mystical feel to it. But one of the most sursping things happened in Diagon alley that day. While shopping, Hermione saw a familiar face in the bookstore.

Hermione turned her attention to the bookstore, ignoring whatever Narcissa was saying. She went into the bookstore, and went up to a tall women looking through the books.

"Jane?" She whispered and tapped the women. The brunette turned around.

"Yes…Hermione!" The woman then hugged Hermione tightly. "Oh! I haven't heard from you in a while! How is everything? Your engaged?" Jane eyed the ring on her finger. "Why didn't you tell me? I know it's been a while…."

"Yes it has. I mean, I lost your number. I moved recently….well a couple of years ago. I didn't get to send out my invitations yet, but what are you doing here?" Jane then replied quite quickly.

"And I could ask the same question for you." Hermione then smiled, that's Jane for you.

"I didn't tell you something. I'm a witch, Jane." Jane's eyes then widen.

"Why didn't you tell me?" This is easier then I thought. Hermione thought.

"I-"

"Jane? Are you ready?" Both Jane and Hermione turned to see a see a man coming towards them. He had a shark like smile, and a head full of hair. His eyes were a light blue, he wasn't gorgeous in a way that was that obvious.

"Hello, Jane introduce your friend." The man said as he looked at Hermione.

"Hermione, this is Alfredo Williams. Alfredo, this is Hermione Granger, my best friend since childhood." He then took her hand and attempted to kiss it, before Hermione giggled nervously and took her hand away before he could.

"Ah, Alfredo, it's a pleasure meeting you." She shook his hand.

"Yes, it is. It's quite rare that I meet one of Jane's friends. Besides, Emma." Alfredo threw Jane a look, while she looked at Hermione.

"Did you talk to Emma? You know she's been asking about you."

"She has? Did you tell her about the wizarding world?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I have. She's taking quite….well, actually. She's still a little afraid though."

"You call her coming to our house with a bible in one hand the crucifix in the other 'a little afraid.'?" Hermione laughed.

"She didn't!" Jane rolled her eyes.

"She did only once, and that was when Al did some trick with her food." Alfredo looked at her with a look of unbelievable.

"That was only once…"

"She had blisters on her tongue for five days!"

"That was an after effect."

Before anything broke out between them; Hermione quickly changed the subject.

"Did you tell Lisa and Mary?" Hermione desperately wished that they would at least react differently.

"Yes, and umm….I'm sorry Hermione, but Mary just couldn't handle it. She doesn't talk to me anymore. But on the bright side, Lisa took it wonderfully. She's quite interested, actually. Al, brought her some books." Hermione then looked down. She wished that Mary would have understood, that was the friend she was closer to.

"So, tell me about this guy your marrying." Jane asked with a curious look.

"He's also a wizard?" Alfredo asked.

"Yes, his name is Draco Malfoy-"

"Malfoy?" Alfredo questioned, while Jane asked what the matter was.

"Mean lot. How did you end up with one of them? Aren't you a muggle?" Hermione started to get uncomfortable.

"You see, um Draco is quite different. He's not prejudice like his family is...well use to be. But yes, we're getting married in a couple of months. I would love for you guys to meet him. He's quite nice actually." Hermione then heard a voice behind her.

"Hermione? Hermione?" Hermione instantly knew that voice and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Jane said as she noticed the look on Hermione's face.

"Nothing. Act happy. Future-mother-in-law-HI Narcissa." Hermione said as the blonde woman came up to her. Her head held up high.

"Yes, well I've talked with one of the ladies who's been working with me over the years, and she said she could fit in an appointment to look for wedding robes for you later this month…who are these people?" Narcissa looked at them, then looked at Hermione.

"Narcissa, this is my childhood friend, Jane Elmer and this is…" Hermione looked at Alfredo, who then looked around at though he was lost.

"My boyfriend, Alfredo Williams." Jane then held out her hand to Narcissa, who didn't take it.

Narcissa then looked at Jane who was the only one not wearing robes. "She's a muggle." Hermione quickly answered.

"I can tell."

"You must be a Malfoy." Alfredo said abruptly.

"How ever can you tell?" Alfredo merely smiled at her scarsam.

"By your attitude."

"Why I-"

"There you two are!" Grandmere and Natalie came around the corner. "We almost got lost for a moment. This place is so big."

"It zure is."

"Jane, honey!" Natalie said as she went to hug Jane.

"Nat. How are you? How can you not tell me that Hermione is engaged?"

"I was going to tell you! But it's been so busy lately. You know, inheriting family members has never been easy. You're a witch?" Natalie asked, when she remembered that Jane never told her she was a witch.

"No, I wish. But my boyfriend is. Oh, how rude of me, let me introduce." Jane then pulled the bored looking Alfredo from looking Playwizard.

"Natalie, this is Alfredo Williams. Alfredo, this Natalie Granger, Hermione's mother." He yawned, which made Natalie frown.

"Hi." He simply said, as he went back to reading.

"Well, you've never met Hermione's grandmere. Grandmere this Jane Elmer, Hermione's friend. Jane, this is Hermione's grandmere, Rebecca DuMaurier ."

"Hi."

"Hello." Grandmere said, but she was too occupied by the moving pictures in the books.

"You know, it's getting quite late. We have to do some more errands. But here's my address and I don't have a phone. I only have an owl at the moment. But we'll get a phone soon."

Jane scowled. "I hate using owls. They always seem to bite my fingers." Jane said as she lifted her right hand, and her fingers were covered in bandages.

"Don't worry, I swear our owl is nice." Alfredo then started to get impatient.

"We do have to go, Jane…" Jane then nodded and hugged Hermione. "It was so good seeing you guys again."

"Yes, it was….and it was pleasure meeting you Alfredo." Hermione then shook his hand.

"Call me Al." Hermione grinned.

"Well, I guess that it is time to go. So goodbye." Narcissa then grabbed Hermione, Grandmere and Natalie and pushed them out of the store.

"Where to next?"

"So, this is the reason, why I think you should buy our vintage brooms. I guarantee you, that you won't find another broom like this one anywhere else. Malfoy & Zabini's broom, so I advise to buy these brooms." Draco held out vintage brooms, which was recently waxed. Blaise was handing out packets of parchment.

"And that is why you should buy our brooms, and not Chang & Chang's brooms. We put quality over quantity."Blaise finished. The witches and wizards in their office looked over the parchments and walked out.

"Quality over quantity, Blaise? Even you could have picked something better then that." Draco walked over to the closet, picking out his robe.

"I didn't hear you coming up with anything better." Blaise pointed out. "Anyway, I promised Ginny I would come home early. She invited her family over to discuss the wedding plans. So I wanted to end the meeting as quickly as possible."

"Planning with the Weasels? Don't I feel bad for you." Draco then waved his wand, and the lights immediately went out.

"Muggles and Purebloods at the same wedding? I wouldn't be talking if I were you, Draco."

"I have made some improvements with the invitations." Narcissa announced at dinner.

"You have?" Hermione asked excitedly. "What? 10 more people."

"More like 2 more people." Hermione's smile soon vanished.

"2 people? You couldn't get more?" She asked.

"Well, like I said earlier, we are purebloods. Not all of us are going to show up to any muggle wedding." Hermione was confused.

"What do you mean? This is Draco. I mean, this is their family too. We're just not any other muggles."

Narcissa drank more of her wine. "Yes, well to the them, it's all the same."

Just then they heard a crack and soon Draco came in the dining room.

"Hello mother." Narcissa face lit up as Draco kissed her cheek.

"Hello Hermione." Draco went to her side and kissed her on the lips as Narcissa sighed in disgust.

"So what's for dinner? I'm starving." Narcissa gracefully went over dinner.

"Aparently we're having roasted beef with mashed potatoes." Narcissa then lowered her voice. "It would have been better if it was done by a house elf though."

"Of course, mother." Draco pretended he didn't hear the comment.

Hermione started to have more of her roast beef when she thought of the invitations. "Hmmph, Draco. I didn't tell you, me, grandmere, mum and Narcissa went over the invitations today."

Draco suddenly interested food, acted as though he didn't hear her. "Oh-yeah, invitations."

"Yes, well it turns out we have four of four of your family memebers coming." Dracosighed, he knew this was going to happen. He knew Hermione was going to get all sensitive over this, about how important it was to have family there.

"Now Draco, I'm not to get sensitive, but it's important to have your family there for the wedding. My family is managing to come, why can't yours?"

"Maybe because their purebloods and utterly hate muggle blood? And they might just kill every muggle they see. Might be a thought."

"Really Draco, your sarcasm isn't needed right now."

"Yes, well maybe if you weren't being so dam naïve then maybe I wouldn't have to be." Draco snapped.

"Fine then, you know what? Your family doesn't have to be there, of course it's only our wedding." Hermione then excused herself from the table and ran upstairs.

Draco slammed down his spoon and knife and groaned in frustration.

Temper just like his father. Narcissa thought.

"Why can't she just understand that my family will never accept us and will not go to the wedding. It's simply beyond my control. It's not like I can place them under the cruico cruse and force them to come. Was it ever this hard for you when you married father?" Narcissa's eyes suddenly widen.

She finished her glass of wine. "Actually…no. Our wedding was arranged. Really, all your father had to do was court me."

"Sounds like it was easy."

Narcissa smiled. "It wasn't."

Ok, so the wedding plans weren't exactly going great, naturally. Hermione came into terms with Draco's family (or the majority of them) not coming. It was a hard fact of life, but still the wedding must go on.

Grandmere came into the bathroom with a hot cup of tea in one hand a towel in another.

"So then at dinner-oh thanks- he tells me his family might end up killing our family because no one in our family 'is magical', isn't that the most pathetic excuse you ever heard?" Hermione asked her Grandmere, who looked at Hermione questioningly.

"Well, Hermione. If hiz family is going to kill us, don't you think he is right?"

"So now your taking his side?"

"Well….yes."

"Why me?" Hermione groaned and sank into the hot water of the tub.

"Stop your complaining!" Grandmere then splashed Hermione with water when all of a sudden the door opened.

"Oh there you are! What are you doing in the bath!" Narcissa questioned as she looked at Hermione who was trying to cover herself with the bubbles in the bath. Narcissa, of course was looking beautiful, she had the most fashionable robes on which was a little lavender purple with exotic deigns on it and her hair was in a French braid. I didn't invite her over….Hermione thought to herself.

"Umm…Narcissa. What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

"Didn't Draco tell you?"

"Draco doesn't tell me lots of things apparently."

"Yes, well I managed to get some of Draco's aunts and cousins to come….well the ones who agreed to and I got a couple more."

"Wait? They're all downstairs? Right now?" Hermione asked, and when Narcissa nodded she started to panic.

"And you shouldn't keep them waiting. Get dress. I'll distract them." Narcissa then slammed the door.

"What iz her problem?" Grandmere asked.

"I don't know, but I have to go downstairs. Shit!" Hermione grabbed the closest dry towel and wrapped her inside and ran to her room.

"Why isn't she down here Narcissa? We have officially been here for 5 minutes." Narcissa smiled at her cousin.

"Helena, I think you could wait just a couple of minutes." Before anyone could complain, Hermione came downstairs with Grandmere.

"Hello everyone." Hermione said as she tried her best to act natural around people who seem to hate her. Hermione came downstairs with her hair in a nice tight, high bun, and in her robes, which weren't as elorbate as her counterparts in the living room. Grandmere came down in her black pants and plain white blouse.

No one greeted them or said anything, which made Hermione slightly uneasy. Narcissa then grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her to the center of the living room.

"Hermione Granger this is Helena Black Rosintin, she's Draco's third cousin, married to Norman Rosintin." Hermione shook her hand. Helena Rosintin, obviously had the Black good looks, but time was starting to show on her face. Her black hair had some streaks of white in it, and she sat down with her back straight and a serious looks on her face. "How do you do?"

"Hi." Was all Hermione managed before Narcissa dragged her to the next person.

"Hermione this is Hermia Black Curtis. Helena's sister. She's married to Gabriel Curtis of the Curtis' that invented the first broomsticks." Hermia was quite different from her sister. She had reddish brown hair, and her eyes had a mischievous twinkle in them. She smiled more then her sister did. She had fresh air around her, obviously it didn't bother her that her cousin was marrying a muggle.

"Hi, Hermione." She shook her hand gracefully and turned to a young boy on her side, which looked like her.

"This is my son, Anthony Gabriel Curtis. He's a little shy." Hermione looked over to him. He had black hair, looked about five. He had big brown eyes.

"Hi Anthony."

"He prefers Tony."

"Hi Tony." The little boy hid behind his mother. Hermia smiled.

"Don't worry; he'll get use to you." Hermione was then thrusted in front of another woman.

"This is Amelia Malfoy." She was in her 20's. She merely nodded her head at Hermione and remained quiet. "She's Lucius's niece."

"And here is Draco's cousin, Caesar Malfoy." He then stood up, and was quite tall which made Hermione look up to him. He didn't look like Draco or someone apart of the Malfoy family. His features were softer and his eye color was more of a ocean blue then it was gray. His hair was more dirty blonde then anything.

Maybe I made the wrong choice….Hermione thought to herself and chuckled. She then realized that she looked like an idiot with a dreamy grin on her face and laughing to herself.

"Ah hi, I'm Hermione. Draco's fiancée." She held out her hand which he potility shook.

"I'm Draco's cousin, Caesar. You know, it's been a while since I seen him. How's he been?"

"Great-wait him, he's fine."

"Hem, hem." Hermione turned see her Grandmere. "I am here to!"

"Yes, well everyone, this is my Grandmere, Rebecca Dumaurier."

"Hello everyone." Finally after everyone was introduced, there was a sudden feeling of awkwardness in the room.

"So, why don't we get down to the plans…." Narcissa beganed. "I wanted to tell you Hermione Helena and Hermia Black are quite famous in our family for being the troublemakers. Don't they look good for their ages?" Narcissa boasted.

"Yes, they do. Let me guess : Hermia's younger." Hermione said, but soon the room went quiet and Hermia chuckled.

"Dear Merlin no, I'm older by six years." Hermione closed her eyes and groaned. Great, I insult my future family without even knowing it. Helena narrowed her eyes at Hermione who nervously flashed a smile.

"Well, you know after all these years with the war, you know my mind justgoes with the wind sometimes." Hermione tried to explain, but the damage was done.

"Do any of you girlz do knitting?" Grandmere tried to take the spotlight off her daughter. She noticed Narcissa smiling, but the smile was wipped off when she realized Grandmere was watching here.

"Yes actually. I do." Helena answered.

"Me to. You know I do have trouble with making glovez though. Don't you find it 'ard?"

"No, I...do it magically."

"Oh." That conversation ended and the room soon had another awkward silence.

This is going to be a long meeting.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm always appericative of them. I didn't know so many people enjoyed this story. Read and Review for the next chapter. Don't mind the mistakes, it's been a hard couple of weeks with everything. But uh, enjoy like usually!Adois!