A huge owl landed in front of her window. She opened the window, but the Eagle Owl refused to enter the flat.
"Brutus," Lucius said annoyed.
"Your owl," Hermione said, feeding Rose.
Reluctantly, he got up and walked to the window. He removed the letter from his owl's leg and Brutus flew off without waiting for a treat.
"What is it?" Hermione asked.
"Draco has sent an invitation for a Yule-dinner."
"We should go." Hermione wiped their daughter's mouth clean.
"It is held at the Manor."
There was a moment of silence. Neither of them knew what to say. On the one hand, she wanted to go, but on the other, it would be just too awkward.
It was Yule and so she got dressed without complaints. She couldn't have said that spending the holidays or one dinner for that matter with Malfoys was something she desperately wanted, but Harry would have to suffer through it just as well.
Hermione had picked, her favorite dress from her closet. She didn't were dresses very often especially not in winter, but the occasion called for it. It wasn't the dress per se that was off-putting, but she had to squeeze herself into tights and that made getting dressed so much more work.
Lucius was tending to Rose as he watched her. She could feel his eyes linger on her legs traveling up with her net-tights. She hoped he would like it, but it also made her awfully aware of herself.
The red dress ended just below her knees. It was rather tight and made out of heavy fabric. While it highlighted her every curve, it was also too tight for her to close it by herself. She moved her hair out of the way and turned her back to Lucius hoping he would get the hint.
"I would much prefer opening the zipper then closing it." He placed a kiss on her neck.
Her cheeks were glowing and she felt his big hand travel up her back. "Afterwards," she whispered, taking over Rose so he could finish getting dressed as well.
He looked absolutely stunning in his dress robes, not that he ever wasn't a beautiful wizard, but she liked how proper he looked in formal wear. Over the past months, she had mostly seen him in some state of undress, not that she minded, but this presented an interesting contrast.
Hermione took a deep breath and had a last glance at the mirror. This was just dinner with people who were technically her family, she reminded herself, nothing to worry about. But in reality, there were a million things that could go wrong.
She wasn't overly fond of Draco and he barely tolerated her. Draco was always having some kind of conflict with his father and then there was Narcissa. Would she even be there? For some reason, Hermione had always avoided thinking about her.
She didn't really want to run into Lucius' ex, and she suspected that Narcissa wouldn't be pleased if her ex arrived with his new witch. This was a bad idea. It wasn't like she had any desire to go to Malfoy Manor. Maybe they could still stay at home, put Rose to bed, and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Standing in the grand entrance hall of Malfoy Manor, her hands clenched around Rose's thighs. While the building didn't actually terrify her, it was still rather intimidating. Hermione felt completely out of place. What was she doing here? Lucius could have gone alone and she would have read a nice book.
The clicking of her heels echoed through the marble entrance hall. Lucius seemed almost excited. He took her hand and dragged her to the big drawing room. On his way, he told her all kinds of tidbits of knowledge about the building. The first Malfoy had received the land for his success with William the Conqueror and over generations, they have expanded upon it.
He took a detour just to show her the portrait of the first Lucius Malfoy who was allegedly responsible for Elisabeth the Ist's status as Virgin Queen. There were various pieces of art scattered throughout the Manor and she could spot very little practical items.
Hermione held Rose closer against her chest. It irritated her that he was so at home there. She thought he had gotten used to her tiny flat, but apparently it couldn't compete with his ancestral home.
"My study," he said proudly opening the door.
With small steps, she entered the dark room. Not only was his study bigger than her entire flat, but it also looked very him. The walls were completely covered with wood paneling. There was a black leather couch leaning against the wall and his wooden desk stood at the end of the room.
He only needed to tilt his office chair to a great few over the gardens. It was so easy for Hermione to picture him sitting on his chair, surrounded by tons of paperwork, and from the window behind him, he could send out his owls.
He took Rose out of her arms and sat down on his chair. Her little hands reached out for the desk.
"This is the room where I received you." Lucius placed a kiss on her head. He handed Rose a quill to play with. Looking around he checked if everything was still in place or if there was something that he needed to attend to.
"It is Yule," Hermione said sternly. She watched him closely.
"I think we can go now."
Hermione stopped in front of the drawing room, she didn't know what she had expected, but this was just too much. The entire room was covered with silver glitter dust. There was a huge tree in the middle of the room. It was hung with silver and crystal ornaments. Stars were hovering under the ceiling and countless silver garlands reflected the light.
"Draco decorated the room." Harry gave her an apologetic smile.
Stepping into the room, she moved very slowly to not slide on the glitter dust. She was relieved when she finally reached the couch and was able to sit down. Harry and Draco were sitting opposite of them. Draco was almost sitting on Harry's lap while Harry was clearly as overwhelmed as she was.
Scorpius was having fun. He was running through the room, picking up the glitter and throwing it around. They've watched him for quite some time but he didn't seem to get tired of it.
"Mother refused to organize something this year so I took care of Yule," Draco explained, "I know how much Harry loves it." He squeezed his head and showered Harry with kisses right in front of his father.
"Where is your mother?" Lucius asked.
"Jamacia or something," he shrugged.
There was an awkward silence. None of them knew what to say.
"So this is my little sister," Draco said, "She had grown quite a bit."
"She had definitely gotten a lot heavier," Hermione said lowering her to the couch. Her eyes were fixed on her daughter making sure that she didn't fall off.
Dinner was a quiet affair. Draco had wanted to do something big, but with small children, having a 12-course meal was not an option. Not that it mattered, there was very little the four of them could talk about and the fact that Rose was Draco's little sister made the entire situation really awkward.
Scorpius was the light at the end of the tunnel. The little boy found sitting on a table with a bunch of adults who weren't even talking very boring. He wanted to finally open his presents. And no one could deny the little cinnamon roll anything.
After having barely finished eating, they returned to the drawing room and gathered around the tree. Hermione was standing up, holding Rose in her arms scared that her little one might inhale too much of the glitter.
Scorpius couldn't be stopped and so he started unpacking all of the gifts. At that point, the boy was far more interested in ripping wrapping paper off then in what was actually inside the gifts. So it was up to Harry who was helping his son, to deceiver which present was meant for whom.
Harry got a new racing broom from Draco. Scorpius got his own little mini version of it from his parents. Lucius got hand-knitted socks from Hermione, she loved the irony of that, and Hermione got a book from Harry and Draco. At that point, she handed, Rose over to Lucus.
Not only did she need a free hand to properly look at the book but Rose was also getting quite heavy. Scorpius meanwhile kept unpacking presents.
Draco looked confused as he opened an empty box.
"I'm ready for a second child," Harry said.
Hermione melted as she heard that. She might not understand what Harry saw in Draco, but they were a cute couple.
Scorpius kept unwrapping gifts. Narcissa got a necklace form Lucius, Harry got a book about great Auror stories from her and Scorpius got…
Her throat constricted as she saw the necklace. There was a huge emerald hanging from it. It wasn't the fact that the necklace was obviously worth a fortune that bothered her, it was the fact that he actually bothered to get his wife something.
Hermione stormed out of the room. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. This hurt so much more than she had expected. It was like she was stabbed out of nowhere. And she had thought that they were happy.
From the corner of her watery eyes, she saw Lucius' hand rose over to Harry. He ran after her but Hermione got a headstart.
"Hermione!" he called after her, but that only propelled her to move faster.
She just wanted to get away from here. Never in her life has she felt so humiliated and dumb. Of course, he didn't want her. She was just some mudblood, to keep his bed warm while his real wife had better things to do than entertain him.
"Hermione, wait!" He grabbed her arm.
With a forceful tug, she freed herself of his grip. "Get away from me!"
"This is a misunderstanding."
"Tell me what exactly is a misunderstanding. That you feel at home here? That you would rather raise Rose here in your nice little pureblood-wizarding bubble? You can't tell me that you actually like muggle London?"
"This is your problem? Is it really so hard to understand that I like to live somewhere where I have enough space to stretch myself? Where I can walk upright without bumping my head? Some of us like to achieve something in life and not just hide away in some archive."
Hermione slammed her hands against her lap. "Yeah, because only what you see valuable is actually of any value. And what do you mean by archive something? This here, Malfoy Manor is nothing but the result of your inheritance."
"And what do you think I am working so hard for? Maybe to maintain what generations of Malfoys have built up so that my children and our daughter can grow up comfortably."
"Maybe I don't want all of this. Has it ever occurred to you that there are more important things than materialistic things?"
"You mean like friends? From what I can tell, you have just as few friendships as I have."
Hermione walked up to him and slapped him with all her might. "Ron is dead!"
"So is Severus, but unlike you, I do not hide in muggle London and wither away."
"No, you run like a fool after some woman who has never loved you and never will just for appearance's sake."
"You know nothing about my marriage and about what Narcissa and I have been through!"
"And I don't want to. Be happy with her.!" Hermione disapparated with a loud crack.