Disclaimer: Of course, these lovely characters do not belong to me. I do borrow them for my idea.
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In-Laws
September 2006
She stood by the fireplace, floo powder long in hand. All she had to do, was throw the powder in and say the name of her destination. It was so simple and yet one of the hardest things she had to do each week. Visiting her parents was a hard thing to do as it was, but when they had bad days, it ripped her heart into little pieces all over again.
Last month had held a particularly "fun" conversation about her fourteen-year-old self, having shrunk her teeth, like it had been yesterday, rather than over ten years ago. Her father had insisted to have an exam on her teeth and wouldn't stop until she opened her mouth and had him have a look. Her mother had immediately agreed that she should eat less candy. And of course, she had looked beautiful to them, even with her oversized front teeth.
Hermione glanced at the floo powder in her hands. A child should not have to feel like this about every visit to their parents. She should be excited to share her new relationship, excited to tell them about the first breakthroughs in her research. Tell them that she had gotten approval to conduct a study among a first small group of people and that there were good chances for her to get an even larger one approved in the future.
She jumped, barely not dropping the powder, when she felt his hand on her arm.
"Where are you going?" When she had said her goodbyes, he had been in Malfoy casual attire, while he was now wearing what would be an outfit for some sort of semi-casual outing, which was still much more formal than what Hermione would have ever worn, before she became close with Narcissa.
"Taking you to St. Clara's." He grabbed his own powder. "Do you want to go first, or do you want me to wait for you there?"
"I…" her eyes darted between him and the fireplace. "They were in a really bad spot last week; I don't think taking you is a good idea."
"I'm not going to meet them unless you want me to. I'm just taking you there and then I'll go on a walk, read the paper or a book until you are ready and then I'll take you home."
"It's the floo, I don't really need assistance."
His eyebrows raised. Her teeth almost reflexively started chewing on the inside of her cheek, as he gave her a long look.
"I feel like going on a walk and heard their gardens are particularly great to look at this time of the year."
She pulled her upper lip in between her teeth before she finally nodded. His free hand lifted to her face to caress her cheek.
"I love you."
Draco Malfoy never randomly admitted to his feelings. A soft smile played on her lips as she finally let go of her lip and remembered the floo powder in her hand. She placed a soft kiss on his palm before she lifted herself to the tip of her toes and pulled him down with her free hand, before placing another one on his cheek.
"I love you too. I'll go first."
When she arrived in the waiting area of St. Clara's, she gave the receptionist a small nod, before turning at Draco's arrival. His eyes were as curious as he could get and her happy smile widened when his hand found hers.
She pulled him to the receptionist to issue a visitor pass for him. Of course, she was well known and had a permanent family member pass, but Draco was new. He nodded along and then had the witch explain how to get to the gardens.
"Just come and find me, when you are ready."
The squeeze to her hand was reassuring before he let go and walked through the doors. The heaviness of her visit returned, and she made her way to the common area, expecting her parents to be there. Part of her wanted to turn around and flee to the gardens to be with Draco. Another part of her wanted to drag him along to sit through the often-weird conversations with her parents.
"Hi, Mum." She leaned down to press a kiss to her mother's cheek, while the woman lifted her arms to hug her daughter. Monica was seated in a comfortable armchair, a book in her lap, but her eyes had been on a spot across the room.
"Hello dear."
"Where is dad?" She sat in a chair nearby, her eyes searching the room.
"He was bored by my book, so he went to ask if he could assist with someone's teeth cleaning."
Hermione breathed in and out, slowly accepting the fact that it would be another one of those visits. She put her smile on, before gesturing to her mother to ask about the book she was reading. It was one of her mother's favorites. She wasn't sure if she remembered all the time, she had reread it, but even those were countless.
"How is school?"
The young witch took another breath.
"It's going well. I have just been granted permission to pursue a special project in one of my classes that goes beyond the regular curriculum." It wasn't the truth, but at least she was lying.
"That's wonderful, I do hope you have the time for all the extra work." Her mother reached for her hand to take in hers.
"They wouldn't have let me take it on if I couldn't handle it." She smiled. "I like being busy."
"I know and admire that." Monica smiled back at her. "Now how are your friends?"
"Doing well." Now, this was a bit harder not to stretch the truth. "Harry and Ginny are dating."
"Wonderful."
"Well, and Ron has met someone. We aren't sure yet how it's going to go." Well, they knew how it was going to go, they just weren't sure how he would handle it in the long run. Poor guy had to endure all these appointments with his baby's stepdad present and the press reporting his every move.
She glanced back at her mother, whose face had fallen.
"How are you doing with that?" Did she remember the Lavender debacle? Sometimes she did. "It isn't that terrible girl from your dorm again, is it?"
So, she did remember. Hermione gave her a smile. Not having anyone else to talk to, she had written her mum about her heartache when she couldn't handle it any longer to be in denial.
"It's not." She breathed in. Never would be again. "He met her outside of school."
"Are you okay with it then?"
"You know, I am." She took another breath. "I met someone as well."
Monica's eyes immediately lit up. She squeezed her hand, before inquiring for more information.
"We have known each other for a while but haven't always gotten along."
"Sounds like the perfect love story. Of course, you are still young and won't have to settle yet."
"He took me on a date at the beginning of the summer and it was this wonderful movie date. You know like everyone back home would do, who doesn't know magic."
"But he is from the magical world?"
She nodded. "He had no idea how to handle a date like it but did wonderfully."
"He cares for you then."
Hermione gave another soft nod.
"That's good. Most boys your age just want a girlfriend or even sex. But a kid who cares this much, maybe there is a future there."
"I would hope so."
After that the conversation wasn't very exciting, Hermione kept hoping that her dad would wander in, but finally, she decided it was time to look for him herself. She told her mother goodbye and started to ask around until someone pointed her towards the gardens.
She stopped abruptly when she found her father seated next to an awfully familiar head of blond hair. He seemed to be talking animatedly, before looking in awe at something Draco seemed to be doing. Wendell picked something up out of the wizard's hands before he happened to look in Hermione's direction.
"Hermione, come over here." He stood and she could now see that he was holding a few snapdragon flowers in his hand. "I just told my friend here that you love these. Do you remember collecting them in your grandmother's garden?"
"I do." She smiled, as he handed her the flowers.
"Draco is like you, obviously, he held a bit of grass, and then they were snapdragon flowers." It wasn't often that she saw her father this happy about magic. In the past years, there had been a lot of resentment whenever the knowledge of his missing memories resurfaced. "Told him they were your favorite, and he just did."
"That's kind of him."
"Have you seen your mother?"
"Yes, I have just been looking for you."
Wendell seemed to contemplate that information.
"Why don't Draco and you join us for tea?"
There were a million replies on her lips, all making her look like quite a fool, but thankfully Draco stepped in before any of them could leave her mouth.
"I wouldn't want to impose on your family time. I'm truly here to enjoy the gardens."
"Nonsense. There are a few tables they let us take our tea at, right out here." Her father wouldn't change his mind, she could tell. "Let me get your mother, why don't you secure us a table?"
He hurried away, and Hermione threw a helpless glance at her boyfriend.
"I swear, I was just reading my newspaper. He approached me and I didn't realize who he was until he told me the story of his little girl, who turned out to be a witch."
She huffed.
"Also mentioned that you had these beautiful front teeth until someone decided to shorten them."
She glared at him: "Only because some wizard hexed them to grow even larger."
Draco had the decency to look guilty at the mentioning.
"It's alright, I did seize the moment to have them shorten to a more normal length."
"So you are saying he should never find out about my involvement because they are normal-sized now and not because I had them grow in the first place?"
She shrugged: "Probably shouldn't mention either."
"Are you okay with this?"
"We aren't telling them the truth but can't hurt to have you interact with them."
He smiled at her, before offering his arm to guide her to one of the tables, he pushed her chair in for her, and they sat for a while before her parents appeared. She didn't see them at first but could hear her father's whisper, which had never qualified as one.
"See they would make a great couple."
"I told you, she has someone she is interested in, I don't think she will like this."
She glanced at Draco, to see his eyebrows raise at her. She just shook her head.
"He made her flowers."
"He looks a tag old to be with a 17-year-old."
Draco almost choked on his laugh and she had to hold back to not slap him. That would have been suspicious.
"Never asked him his age, but he is into architecture, so that would make him a few years older."
"I don't know, Wendell."
The Grangers finally came closer, and Draco stood to push in her mother's chair.
"A perfect gentleman." Wendell beamed, before looking at Hermione.
"Learn from him, while you can, dear." Her mother's sarcasm made her feel a little better and thankfully the spontaneous tea, didn't lead to any incidents, other than her father's obvious attempts of matchmaking.
After tea, the Grangers bid their goodbyes and the pair returned to the floo. It wasn't until he joined her on the couch that they spoke of the weird afternoon.
"Just so you know, marigolds are my favorite. Please don't fill my house with snapdragons."
Draco laughed. It was one of those laughs she didn't hear often, because usually there was someone else who he was more reserved around.
"Alright." He glanced at the snapdragons which had a stasis charm on them and floated over her coffee table.
"Now that you ended up meeting the Grangers, you probably need to go and meet the Weasleys as well."
His stare of horror met her.
"I consider them my wizarding parents. Molly has taught me so much and honestly, Arthur is a lot like the version of my father you have met today. Of course, he does know that you are the little cockroach who I used to cry over."
"I thought your father might figure it out when he insisted on knowing my name."
"I probably always called you Malfoy."
"That's going to be a fun moment at our wedding then."
She turned to look at him, eyes wide.
"I thought I made clear that I was going to marry you one day if you didn't run away before that."
Hermione drew her lips between her teeth, her heart racing against her chest.
"I know. It's just different, now that you have met them. They like you."
"I want to say, don't sound so surprised, but I guess you have a point to be."
She sank back against him.
"At least I have one of your mothers on my side. As she is kind of obligated to mostly like her own son." She raised her eyebrow, but he probably didn't see it from his angle. She felt a kiss on her hair, while his hand moved up and down her arm. "Although she did threaten to disown me and keep you if I messed this up."
AN: This is the second to last official chapter. I have another project waiting for me to work more on it. Its again a Dramione story set after the war. If anyone would be interested in Beta Reading (Member or not) let me know.
