A/N - As always, this piece will be turned into a longer story at some point in the future. But for now, enjoy this piece.
The Unveiling.
Lounging on the king sized bed in the bedroom he shared with his wife in their personal wing of Malfoy Manor, Draco Malfoy silently watched as his wife emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but a skimpy black silk lingerie set, which consisted of a tiny pair of knickers and a low cut bra. As his wife settled down at her dressing table to do her hair and make-up, Draco admired her stunning figure. She wasn't stick thin like so many pureblood witches he knew, nor was she overly curvaceous. In his opinion his wife had the perfect figure. She had long, shapely legs, breasts that were a perfect handful and a perky behind. Just the sight of the witch he loved in her skimpy underwear caused a reaction in him, and he shifted slightly on the bed to try and alleviate the erection that was starting to form.
Draco's movement caught the attention of his wife, and she briefly looked over her shoulder at her husband. When she spotted his problem, she gave a small laugh before turning her attention back to getting ready. As tempting as it was to take advantage of her husband's arousal, she had much more important things to attend do.
"I'm sure you've done this deliberately," Draco muttered, still trying to get comfortable and forget about his libido. "You're just a tease."
"Of course I am," His wife laughed as she stood up. Her long hair had been neatly pinned up and her make-up was immaculate. "And that's why you love me," She added with a smirk as she walked over to the wardrobe.
"It's one of the reasons," Draco replied as he watched his wife pull out a black dress from the wardrobe.
The fact his wife was putting some clothes on should have helped Draco's problem, but if anything it only made it worse. Her black dress clung to her curves, accentuating her impressive cleavage with its halter neck style. The dress also finished several inches above her knees, leaving her long legs on full display. She then slipped into a pair of very high heels, which Draco mentally vowed he would get her to keep on later when she got undressed. To finish the look, she added a fitted black jacket.
"What do you think?" She asked, turning to face her husband.
"I think you look incredibly sexy to be going to a funeral," Draco replied.
"Sexy?" His wife questioned with a chuckle.
"Yes, sexy. Not that I'm complaining mind you, I like it," Draco said. "You make a very sexy grieving widow."
Draco's wife chuckled as she turned back to her dressing table and picked up a large hat that was sitting on it. Placing the hat on her head, she let down the black veil that was attached to it before turning back to her husband.
"Now I'm the grieving widow."
"Dramatic," Draco chuckled. "You'll certainly draw attention to yourself."
"Isn't that the idea?" She questioned as she removed the hat again. She would put it on before they left the house, but she'd just wanted to give Draco the full effect of her outfit.
Draco nodded as his wife made her way over to where he was sitting. "Have fun, and remember I want a blow by blow account when you return. It'll be interesting to hear all about my own funeral."
"I'll tell you everything," She vowed as she gave her husband a brief kiss. "But right now, I have to go. Your parents will be waiting downstairs."
Draco nodded again and watched as his wife swept out of their room. He wished he could go with her and watch the fun for himself, but it wasn't exactly something he could do given the circumstances. He was supposed to be dead, and turning up at his own funeral would blow the entire thing. He would just have to wait until it was over and let his parents and wife fill him in on what had happened. However, there was one thing he knew for sure, the funeral of Draco Malfoy would be nothing less than spectacular.
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"Is everyone in place?" Harry Potter asked, via the earpieces all the Order were wearing.
Everyone in the Order was equipped with earpieces so they could communicate with one another. The invention was curtesy of Fred and George, which they'd adapted from muggle communication techniques. The Order had been using the devices for a few years now, so everyone was used to them.
Harry nodded happily when he received several replies of confirmation that everything was in place. The Order was surrounding the chapel where Draco Malfoy's funeral was being held in just under half an hour. A couple of their members were even going to be attending the service as mourners. While the Order knew Draco had been a Death Eater, and a high ranking one at that, to the rest of the wizarding world he was merely a young entrepreneur.
"Do you think she'll show?" Ron Weasley asked from Harry's side. The pair were located up a tree outside of the chapel. It offered a perfect view into the chapel, and it overlooked the Malfoy family crypt, where Draco would be laid to rest.
"Yes," Harry replied confidently. "She's his wife, of course she'll show."
"I can't wait to see what she looks like," Ron said.
Draco's wife, the mysterious Mrs Malfoy, had never been seen in public. Everyone knew Draco was married, he wore a wedding ring and never denied he had a wife, but he'd always refused to be drawn on the topic of his personal life. As such, nothing was known about his wife, other than the fact he married her a few months after leaving Hogwarts. However, the Order did know one thing about her, the thing that made them so eager to draw her out in the open. Draco's wife was none other than Voldemort's daughter.
The Order had first heard about Voldemort's daughter a few years ago, back in Harry's last year of Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been looking into finding out who she was and where she was, when he'd mysteriously died. Officially his death was put down to natural causes, but the Order knew otherwise. He'd gotten too close to the truth and Voldemort or his daughter had killed him, or gave an order to kill him. Unfortunately, whatever information Dumbledore had found went to the grave with him and none of the Order had been able to discover more about Voldemort's mystery daughter.
The next they'd heard of her was a few months later, when rumours reached them that Draco was due to marry her. At the time the Order were mourning the death of one of their members, Harry and Ron's best friend, Hermione Granger. Hermione had been killed while away with Harry and Ron, and ironically it had been Draco himself who'd killed her. The trio had been searching for a Horcrux, when Draco and a couple of his friends had appeared when some silent alert had been triggered. A fight had broken out and Hermione had ended up battling the blond Death Eater. The trio had been searching a house on the top of a cliff and during their fight, Draco and Hermione had ended up outside on the cliff top. During the fight, Draco had hit Hermione with the killing curse and she'd went tumbling over the cliff into a watery grave. Harry and Ron had witnessed the event, and they'd been so shocked to witness Hermione's death that they'd allowed Draco and his friends to escape.
Due to the timing of the incidents, the Order wondered if Draco marrying the Dark Lord's daughter was reward for killing Hermione. It certainly seemed that way to them, and after the marriage his power within the Death Eaters had grown daily. Before his death, he was Voldemort's right hand man and the latest rumours were that he and his wife would one day take full control of the dark.
Draco's death was something Harry and Ron were proud to take personal credit for. It had taken them a while, but they'd dedicated themselves to finding out everything they could about Draco and his life. When they'd found out he was visiting a business associate in the south of France, they'd arranged a visit to the business associate's potions factory beforehand and paid a member of staff to cause a small explosion when Draco was at the factory. The aim had been more to injure him, and have his wife come running to his side, but the explosion had been more powerful than they'd intended and Draco and the owner of the factory were killed in the blast.
Even though they hadn't meant to kill Draco, Harry and Ron hadn't regretted their actions in the slightest. They'd killed the man who'd murdered their best friend, and in their eyes, it was everything that Draco deserved. Besides, it now provided them the perfect opportunity to view his widow for the first time as she would inevitably attend his funeral. Even though she kept a ridiculously low profile, no-one in the Order seriously thought she would miss her own husband's funeral.
"Here we go," Harry announced as a few people began to appear on the ground below them. They knew the chapel had no floo access, or anywhere for people to arrive inside, so all the mourners would have to enter via the front entrance of the chapel and its grounds.
From their vantage point, Harry and Ron had the perfect view of people arriving. They spotted old school friends of Draco's, including his closest friends, Blaise Zabini, Theo Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. They suspected almost all of his friends of also being Death Eaters, but like Draco, they all had respectable lives and nothing was ever proven. Draco's male friends all looked sombre and sad, while the women were openly weeping. Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass looked to be heartbroken, and they were supported by Blaise and Theo as they entered the chapel.
As they watched the mourners arrive, they spotted Severus Snape and a few other Professors from Hogwarts, including the Order's, Minerva McGonagall. Once upon a time, Dumbledore and the Order had believed Snape to be on their side, but after Dumbledore's death the Potions Professor had shown his true colours and taken over as Headmaster of Hogwarts. Of course there was still a few people in the Order who believed Snape was still on their side, including McGonagall herself who still worked at Hogwarts and had no problems with the new headmaster. However, Harry and Ron didn't trust him and as Harry was the unofficial leader of the Order now Dumbledore was dead, Snape was no longer welcome amongst them.
Finally, Draco's family arrived and Harry and Ron took keen interest in them. Draco's parents, Lucius and Narcissa, were both wearing black dress robes and looked inconsolable. Behind them, Draco's aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, was accompanied by The Dark Lord himself. Rumour had it the pair were a couple, and it certainly looked that way to Harry and Ron. However, their focus was on the witch at the back of the group. The witch in question was wearing a large hat, with a black veil that hid her face entirely. However, her outfit did little to hide her stunning figure and amazing legs.
"Damn, that must be her under the hat," Harry swore. "She could be anyone under there."
"I doubt she'll wear it throughout the entire ceremony," Ron replied as he tried not to drool over how hot Draco's wife seemed to be.
"Let's hope not," Harry muttered. "I want everyone to keep their focus on the witch in the show stopping dress and large hat and veil. She's Voldemort's daughter, I just know she is."
Harry and Ron watched as the family made their way inside the chapel, accepting condolences from people as they went. From their position, they could see the seats where the family settled and they spotted Draco's wife taking her place in between Lucius and Voldemort. As the service began, the Order sat back and waited for Draco's wife to remove her hat and reveal her identity.
The funeral service for Draco was deeply moving, with several people delivering moving eulogies for the blond wizard. Or at least it was moving if you didn't know Draco was a dangerous Death Eater and deserved his very painful death. With the service over, the mourners moved into the graveyard where the Malfoy crypt was located. Instead of being buried inside the crypt, Draco's grave was going to be one of the outside plots.
Throughout the funeral service, and the burial, Draco's wife kept her hat on the entire time. Several of the Order had voiced their concerns that she wasn't going to remove it, but Harry refused to let them leave their positions. Even when the guests started leaving, Harry insisted they stay where they were.
Finally, the only people left at the graveside were Draco's parents, his wife, his aunt and Voldemort. For a long time the group just stood where they were, looking as though they didn't know what to do. Finally, Voldemort and Bellatrix turned and left, closely followed by Lucius and Narcissa.
"This is it," Harry stated, looking down at where Draco's wife stood alone at his open grave. Instinctually, he knew this was when they would finally get to see what the Dark Lord's daughter looked like. "Cameras at the ready," He ordered, hoping everyone else was in place. Obviously, they were going to take pictures of her as they were hoping to find out more about her once they knew what she looked like.
As if on cue, Draco's wife reached up and pulled the large hat off her head. Dramatically she threw the hat down on top of her husband's coffin, before she slowly turned and looked directly up at where Harry and Ron were hiding.
"Bloody hell," Ron whispered, all the colour draining from his face as Draco's wife stared at them. "It can't be."
"No, this isn't possible," Harry muttered. "Are you all seeing what we're seeing?" He asked the others.
Slowly the replies came back to Harry. Yes, they were all seeing what Harry and Ron were seeing. Voldemort's daughter, and Draco's grieving widow, was none other than Hermione Granger.
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Hermione stood in the graveyard, staring up at where she knew Harry and Ron were sitting, wondering what thoughts were going through their head. She didn't honestly expect either of them to get past their shock and move, but if they did, she could be away in less than a second. She hadn't shown herself to them for them to attack her, it was just time for them to know who they were dealing with. It was time they found out that she was Voldemort's daughter.
Hermione had hidden her true identity for seven whole years in Hogwarts, and another couple since leaving school. She'd initially attended Hogwarts as a muggle for her own protection, but when she'd befriended Harry, she'd then been able to pass information onto her father. It had always been the plan for her to leave her act behind once they left school, but instead of revealing herself at the time, they decided to fake her death. The entire fight with Draco had been pre-arranged, and Hermione hadn't been hit by the killing curse. Draco had hit her with a spell to protect her as she went flying off the cliff. Down below, another couple of Death Eaters were waiting, and they'd rescued Hermione from the water and whisked her away before anyone had a chance to try and find her body.
For a couple of years, Hermione had kept a low profile as the dark decided on the best way to reveal her identity to the Order. Voldemort wanted the revelation to truly rip the heart out of the Order when they realised the girl they'd mourned had been working against them the entire time, and all they needed was the perfect time to move. Ironically it was the Order that had given them the perfect opportunity when they'd tried to kill Draco.
It was just good luck that Draco had been outside on a balcony at the time of the explosion and he was blown to safety, suffering only minor injuries. It hadn't been hard to find out Harry and Ron were behind the explosion, and it had been even easier to pretend that Draco had died from his injuries. Aside from a small selection of people, everyone did think that Draco was truly dead. Not even all of Draco's friends had been told that he was alive, although they would soon be informed. After all, he would be rising from the dead very soon and he and Hermione were going to finally dispose of the Order.
Knowing that it was nearly time to get moving, and she'd given the Order plenty to think about, Hermione blew Harry and Ron a kiss and with a wicked laugh that floated around the graveyard she pulled out her wand and disappeared with a pop. She could only imagine the disarray her presence at Draco's funeral had caused, and she was just sad that she couldn't stick around to witness the Order's devastation at the realisation that she was Voldemort's daughter, but she had a dead husband to get back to.
Hermione arrived back at the manor, where the wake was being held, and for the next couple of hours she played the grieveing widow to perfection. A couple of times she wondered how Draco was faring up in their wing of the manor, unable to leave in case anyone saw him. Thankfully, she didn't have to stay too long before she could claim she'd had enough and needed some time to herself. Promising Draco's friends she would be in touch in the next couple of days, Hermione headed up to the wing of the manor she shared with her husband.
Entering the bedroom, she found Draco lounging on a chair in the corner of the room, a book in his hand. The second she entered the room, he dropped the book to the floor and stood up to greet her.
"How was it?" He asked, giving her a quick kiss.
"Exhausting," Hermione admitted. "I never want to have to go through that for real. I didn't realise just how much the act would affect me."
"It's all over now," Draco said, pulling Hermione into his arms. He knew Hermione would never admit to anyone else how hard she'd found the day, but she told him everything.
"No, it's just beginning," Hermione corrected. "We've showed our hand now."
"Ah, the big revelation," Draco said with a smirk as he led Hermione over to the bed and the pair of them sat down on the edge. "How did it happen?"
"I made them wait for it," Hermione said with a wicked grin. "I kept my hat on throughout the entire ceremony, and the burial."
"Wow, I bet Potter and Weasley were spitting nails," Draco chuckled.
"I bet they were," Hermione agreed. "But I'm sure it was worth the wait in the end. Slowly everyone left, until there was just me standing at your open grave. I then pulled off my hat, threw it into your grave and turned to look up at where we'd decided they would be positioned."
"Dramatic," Draco replied, wishing he'd been there to witness the entire thing.
"I thought so," Hermione said. "It should have given the Order something to talk about."
"What do you think they'll do now?" Draco asked.
"I don't know," Hermione replied. A few years ago she would have been able to guess how Harry and Ron would have reacted, but these days she didn't have a clue how they thought. After all, she never would have thought they'd have the balls to try and kill Draco.
"I guess we're just going to have to wait and see," Draco said. "But now tell me about the rest of the funeral. Was it well attended?"
"It was, the chapel was packed," Hermione confirmed.
"And were people upset?" Draco asked.
"They were," Hermione replied. "Pansy and Daphne seemed especially upset. I think they cried more than me."
"Ah, my fan club," Draco said with a devious smirk. Even though he'd never done anything with either witch, he knew both Pansy and Daphne had harboured crushes on him during their school days.
"You know I'm not so sure I like my husband having witches so devastated at his fake death," Hermione mused. "It makes me wonder just why they were so upset."
"What can I say, I broke a few hearts in my time," Draco smirked.
"Just make sure mine is never one of them," Hermione whispered.
"Never," Draco vowed, pulling Hermione into his arms. "You're the only witch I'm interested in. The only witch I've ever been interested in."
"Make sure it stays that way," Hermione purred, nuzzling against her husband's neck. "Before I left for the funeral you were ready for action, are you still up for it?"
"I think I can rise to the occasion," Draco replied with a grin. "Although I do have one request."
"Anything for you, today of all days," Hermione answered. "What do you want, Draco?"
"Leave your heels on," Draco requested.
"Just the heels?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just the heels," Draco confirmed. "Everything else can go."
Hermione gave Draco a kiss before getting to her feet and slowly stripping off her clothes. She then shimmied out of her underwear, and clad in just her high heels, she pushed Draco back on the bed and straddled him.
"You're wearing too many clothes, Draco," She purred, unbuttoning his shirt.
"I'm sure you'll fix that," Draco muttered, running his hands over Hermione's bare skin and settling them on her backside.
Hermione did indeed fix the problem and within a couple of minutes, Draco was also naked. As the couple set about making love, they didn't give the Order a second thought. All too soon they would face them in battle, but tonight was just for them. Now the truth was out the final chapter of the war would begin, but not just yet. Draco and Hermione still had some private time together before Draco would rise from the dead and together he and Hermione would douse the light once and for all.