Hermione could not believe the shite Mrs. Weasley was spewing. It seemed like no matter what she did or did not do, what she did or did not have control over, she was always in the wrong with that woman. Shaking her head, she grabbed her wand from the end table where she had left it after arriving back home from the meeting.
Its been a week since she last heard from anyone in the order. Even Harry, Ginny, and Ron seemed to be avoiding her. Which hurt, she had to admit. She never thought they would side with Molly, especially since this was not something new to them. But the silence coming from their little corner of the world told her that the allies she thought she would have, were not there. Or they were at least being very quiet until everything settled down a little more.
She left her flat quickly, her mind in another world as she apparated in front of a large cabin. Her eyes rolled so hard she felt like they might get stuck. Small cabin my arse, Theo. He had directed her to his vacation cabin in the woods. Said it was just a modest little place to get away from the world for a bit, his little piece of freedom from the unrelenting demands of society. She still could not get over how pretentious some of the sacred 28 were. With their damned white peacocks and their "small" cabins…
Gathering herself she shook the thoughts from her mind and walked up the pathway to the front door. She didn't bother to knock, knowing that Theo would more than likely be expecting her, if not impatient with her tardiness.
She walked into the front entrance and was greeted by a house elf.
"Hello, missy Dolohov, Tuppy will take yous things and puts them in yous rooms." The small being took her bag from her with an exasperated look on her face. In a flash she was gone and quickly enough to give Hermione whiplash she was back looking up at her expectantly.
"Yous is being late. Master Teddy bes in the sitting rooms. Follow mes." Hermione said nothing as the tiny elf lead her to the sitting room where Theo was indeed waiting for her. She paused briefly when she saw Mrs. Malfoy and Draco also in the room.
Raising a brow in question to Theo she took a seat in one of the armchairs that was surrounding a table filled with biscuits and tea.
"Mrs. Malfoy, let me officially introduce you to Hermione Granger, one third of the golden trio, smartest witch of our age, and all-around Gryffindor know-it-all." Theo smirked at her as he introduced them.
She took a deep breath reminding herself that she needed to conduct herself accordingly when she was in the presence of other people. But they wouldn't be here forever, and she was going to get revenge as soon as they were gone. A saccharine smile spread across her face as she made to look as innocent as possible. Theo actually seemed to shudder slightly when the expression crossed her face. The satisfaction she felt seeing that could only be described as divine.
"Pleased to officially meet you Mrs. Malfoy," She inclined her head in greeting. "I apologize for my tardiness; I was held up finishing some paperwork. Had I known that Theo had invited other guests I would have made sure to be here earlier."
For her part Narcissa held her face stoic, keeping a slight feeling of shock from expressing itself at hearing the girl's manners. It seemed that despite her upbringing she might just become a proper pureblood anyways.
She nodded her head accepting the girl's apologies.
"No need to apologize, my dear. It was a last-minute arrangement. Once I heard that you were planning to spend the week here with young Mr. Nott, I suggested that we might come for the week as well."
Hermione had to keep her eyes from widening in shock.
"The week?"
"Well, yes dear. You need a chaperone, as any proper young lady should have if they are not yet married."
"A chaperone." Hermione mumbled it to herself quietly and forced a polite smile. "Yes, quite, it is sometimes difficult to remember that there are so many rules that come along with… pureblood society."
Theo and Malfoy were hiding their amusement at the situation quite poorly, Malfoy decided to cut in before either woman could start an argument.
"Shall we get on with this then, I find that I am already not looking forward to spending so much time on such nonsense as planning a wedding. I have no idea what pleasure Theo might get out of this drivel." Both Theo and Mrs. Malfoy glared at the blond man with vigor, causing him to shrink back slightly.
Hermione smirked, holding back a laugh.
"I agree Malfoy. I still do not see the requirement for such a ceremony, especially if I am to be stuck with Rowle for the rest of my life. Seems like I should be planning a funeral rather than a wedding." They shared a look of understanding with each other. Never once did she expect to have anything in common, but it seemed like her hatred for the man was well shared with the Malfoy scion.
Their glares turned towards her, obviously offended that she didn't take as much pleasure out of the planning process as they did.
"Honestly, this is the last thing that I want to do in life, and I wouldn't even be doing it if it weren't a life or death situation, you truly can't expect me to want any part in this." She was confounded by their adamant nodding. As if they indeed did want her to gush about wedding colours and center pieces.
Rolling her eyes, she let it go. There was no point in arguing with these two it seemed.
"Right, lets get this over with."
It seemed like hours had passed, she was so bored out of her mind and annoyed with the constant questions of what she wanted for the ceremony. She truly did not care one iota what type of flowers were going to be in the center piece of the primary reception table for the ball following the ceremony.
Glancing at the clock she held back a large groan of irritation, it had only been two hours, and based off of the very little they had done, with the bickering back and forth of what colour the chair sashes should be that had been going on for the last 15 minutes, it was going to take weeks of meetings to get this all taken care of.
Rubbing her eyes, she looked longingly at the novel Malfoy had in his hands as he lounged on the settee. As if feeling her eyes on him he looked over the edge of his book meeting her gaze questioningly.
Rolling her eyes, she swiftly and just barely tilted her head in the direction of the two bickering biddies. Understanding shone through his eyes before a sardonic smirk made its way onto his face, shrugging his shoulders he turned back to the book, taking amusement from her suffering.
She wanted to throw something at his smug little ferret face. The feeling of comradery obviously missing after their initial reintroduction.
Something small and hard hit her in the side of her head, bringing her attention back to the planning. Theo smirked at her as she glared at him, rubbing the side of her head.
"Rather uncalled for wasn't it." She ground out between gritted teeth.
"Not at all Mia. I had to get your attention back somehow. Seeing as it is your wedding we're planning here, darling." His eyes widened as an innocent smile stretched across his face.
"Fine, what now?" Her patience was wearing very thin.
"What colour do you want the chair sashes?"
"We're still on that?" The groan was clear in her words.
Shocked she wasn't paying attention for the last 20 minutes his smile fell off his face.
"Yes, we're still on that," his tone was mocking, "it might already be chosen if you decided to take an ounce of interest in your own wedding ceremony."
"Merlin! I don't care about the inane ceremony! I don't want any part of this, especially the part of being the bride to be!" Working herself into a tizzy she was about to go into full ranting mode, but one simple sentence took the wind out of her sails before she could even begin to start.
"It's the only one you're going to get."
Damn, when he put it that way, she could see why they were pushing her so hard to participate.
"Fine. What colours did we decide on for the wedding again?"
Rolling his eyes, he answered softly, "Lilac and pearl white."
"Ok…" Hermione scrunched her nose up in thought. "What about white chairs with lilac sashes? Maybe with babies' breath flowers surrounding the bows?"
Nodding his head and glad to finally come to a decision on topic his quick notes quill took down her choice.
"Fantastic, the décor is all decided on. Now we just need to know where we are holding the ceremony." Theo was double checking his list making sure that everything was taken down properly.
Hermione groaned in relief.
"It will be held at the Dolohov Castle of course." Mrs. Malfoy declared haughtily. Rolling her eyes at the two clueless teenagers staring back at her in confusion, she held back the urge to sigh heavily. "It is in the binding agreement."
"How would you know that?" Hermione knew it was rude to ask outright but her shock overrode her polite upbringing.
"I read it when young Mr. Nott here sent a copy to Draco for further investigation into the breaking the contract." Hermione's eyebrows shot almost to her hairline.
"Honestly girl, this is the biggest news since the battle of Hogwarts, and I do so love being involved." The smirk on her face was undeniably wicked.
"How you ever thought you could possible break a blood bond is beyond me. Every witch and wizard who is worth their salt knows that it is impossible to break such a bond." Her tone was slightly mocking.
"Excuse me for being a muggleborn. It is not exactly common to have arranged marriages in the muggle world, and we do not have any sort of bondings at all." She was getting on her last nerve.
"Muggle raised Miss Dolohov and as unfortunate as your upbringing is, I would assume you had done your research after living in the wizarding world for so long."
"I am not exactly pleased with the match that was made for me. I'm going to do everything I possibly can to get out of this."
"There is no "getting out of this" for you Miss Dolohov. You are as good as married to Mr. Rowle. There is no use in fighting or prolonging it as it is only going to cause you that much more stress."