a/n1: Shout out to Cat130 who caught the 100th review! :) I am really spoiling you with updates right now. But fear not I think the flow will flow on ;) Since I quoted from the fifth book in this chapter: I own nohing, save for Tinna and the plot. As always viv-heart betaed the chapter. Enjoy! :)
When Hermione stepped into the kitchen on Monday morning she saw three official looking letters sitting on a silver tray. Even though they weren't eating in the dining room Kreacher insisted on presenting the letters the old way. They humoured him since it was innocent enough.
Beneath those official letters Hermione found another two from Pansy, one for herself and another for Harry. Hermione smiled, glad that Harry had someone else to talk to besides her and Ron. Beneath those there was a last letter. It was from Narcissa.
Hermione frowned. Since the hearing the two women hadn't written as much, each having a lot to do now. She opened the letter from Narcissa first. It was only a short message.
Dear Hermione,
I hope this letter finds you well. This is rather last-minute, but would you like to come over for tea? I think Draco could use more company his own age. Especially since the trial is coming closer and he is growing more restless.
I hope you will join us today.
Yours,
Narcissa
Hermione folded the letter and thought about it. Of course asking her was the logical thing to do, even if Draco seemed to be a little uncomfortable around her on Saturday. It was understandable that he was scared because of the trial. Maybe she could spare some time from her other tasks for tea at Andromeda's.
Foregoing Pansy's letter for now, Hermione grabbed one of the official letters. Two were for Harry and Ron, probably their results of the entrance exam for the Auror training. The last one was addressed to her, with Mr Shafiq's office as the return address.
Hermione opened the letter and found yet another short note.
Dear Miss Granger,
Mr Malfoy is allowed to contact Mr Nott. But he has to be aware that Mr Nott's mail is checked upon arrival to guarantee the security of Mr Nott. (Hermione snorted. Security - as if.) Any violation of the law will be followed up as such.
Sincerely,
Annie Pierce
Secretary of the Head of the DMLE
Smiling Hermione folded the letter up. She would announce it at tea this afternoon, that should cheer Draco up. The letter from Pansy was next. The Slytherin girl only wanted to make sure that their meeting at half past two in the Leaky Cauldron on the next day was still standing.
Having read all her mail Hermione sat down for breakfast. She was used to eating alone since it was rare that the boys were awake at eight o'clock in the morning. Hermione actually savoured the silence, at least a bit.
When she had finished her breakfast she went up to the library. She would probably use the morning to go over her defence strategy once again. This time the Wizengamot was more likely to ask questions and she wanted to be prepared for everything.
Hermione was roused from contemplating her documents by her alarm charm going of. She had set it for two o'clock so she would have enough time to clean up for the Malfoys. Tapping her wand to her palm ended the alarm and Hermione started to file away the parchment scrolls. There were so many she had needed all morning to read through them once again. She had missed lunch but she wasn't particularly hungry so Hermione decided to eat something at Andromeda's.
Going up to her room Hermione contemplated what she should wear. It was getting warmer and she struggled coming up with good explanations for her long sleeves. Maybe a light jumper over a tank top would work. It looked more like 'I would like to wear summer clothes, but it is too cold' than 'I am hiding gruesome scars so you won't stare at me'.
Hermione decided to apparate and walk up to the house from the wards. It was a lovely summer day and Andromeda's garden was beautiful. When she arrived at the house she wondered whether she and Pansy should just get a coffee to go and take a walk in a park. That would be nice.
Upon entering the house she was greeted with the sweet scent of freshly baked scones. A smile appeared on Hermione's face and she entered the kitchen to compliment whoever produced those heavenly scents.
She did not expect to see Lucius Malfoy powdered with flour and whistling while casting spells to decorate the muffins before him. Neither did she expect to see Narcissa Malfoy, ice-queen extraordinaire, sitting on a chair, her legs pulled up to her chest and singing along quietly. Hermione was flabbergasted.
She was indeed so shocked that she actually squeaked when someone touched her shoulder. Whirling around she came face to face with an amused Draco who looked down at her, mirth dancing in his grey eyes.
"Jumpy, are we?" he asked teasingly. "Or were you just shocked that my father can actually hold a tune?"
An errant raisin barely missed Draco's head who moved to the side just in time. He watched it fall down just behind him and vanished it with a snap of his fingers. Hermione's eyes were by now as big as saucers.
When they turned back to the elder Malfoys, both were studiously occupied with decorating the muffins. Draco looked indignant at first, but his expression soon softened a little.
Hermione and Draco exchanged a look and looked away at the same time, both trying to contain their laughter. It was just too ridiculous to see the normally so controlled Malfoy's acting like normal people.
Andromeda entered the room just when they were finished and they levitated everything to the living room. They settled on the couches and started the conversation with a bit of small talk.
The conversation flowed much more freely than it had on Saturday when the boys had been there as well. Hermione started to relax a bit. She leant back on the couch and nearly forgot not to brush up her sleeves.
Narcissa caught the movement. "You know we won't treat you differently because of it, don't you?"
"I-" Hermione looked up startled. She wasn't sure what to say.
"Every last one of us has scars. You don't need to hide them around us," Narcissa said gently and Andromeda nodded along. Neither Draco nor Mr Malfoy said anything but they watched her with interest.
Slowly Hermione rolled up her sleeves, glad to be able to since she was rather warm by now. No one gasped or said anything, but Lucius raised an eyebrow and Draco stiffened for a moment.
"Sometimes I wish I could have gotten Bella for all the damage she did," Narcissa said calmly, sipping from her cup. Mr Malfoy nodded and Andromeda exchanged a glance with her remaining sister.
After that the conversation turned back to happier subjects. Suddenly Hermione remembered the letter in her pocket.
"Draco, do you remember that I wrote to Mr Shafiq about you being allowed to write to Theo?" The blond nodded and Hermione pulled out the letter with a smile. "This is the answer."
Draco looked up at her in disbelief after reading it. "Really?" he whispered and when she nodded he smiled brightly and hugged her. He let go immediately but the smile stayed.
"Thank you so much," Draco said and gave the letter to his mother who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
She snorted while reading it and Hermione had the sneaking suspicion that she knew which sentence had called for that reaction. Narcissa didn't hug Hermione but she beamed at her.
"This is wonderful. Thank you. Draco and Theo have always been great friends," she said and Hermione knew she had fulfilled Narcissa's wish from the letter.
Mr Malfoy reacted just like his wife while reading the letter, as did Andromeda. He also thanked Hermione.
"Do they really think you would believe the nonsense about keeping the Nott heir safe?" Andromeda asked when she had finished reading.
Hermione laughed. "Probably. The Ministry tends to underestimate me."
"There is something I always wanted to ask you, Hermione. How did you get rid of Miss Skeeter in your fourth year?" Narcissa asked curiously and Hermione blushed crimson.
"I don't know if Draco told you, but she is a beetle animagus. So I just caught her like any other beetle – in a jar," she answered truthfully.
Mr Malfoy narrowed his eyes a little. "For how long, if you don't mind me asking, Miss Granger?" he asked in a silky voice in which even Hermione could recognise the amusement.
"A month. I let her out during the holidays, threatening to inform the Ministry about her being an unregistered animagus if she wrote anything within a year," the young witch whispered.
Mr Malfoy whistled and Narcissa smiled. "Told you she is devilish," the blonde witch said to her husband who chuckled.
"I would love to know what she would have achieved in Slytherin," Mr Malfoy said.
"Probably defeated the Dark Lord on her own," Draco said quietly, and looked up to her self-consciously but she only smiled.
"Maybe, but I would still have needed Harry to ultimately defeat him," Hermione said with a wink.
"Ah, right, the famous prophecy," Mr Malfoy drawled. But in the sunny room and the picture of him covered in flour fresh in mind it wasn't as frightening as it had been in the Ministry.
"Do you want to hear it? After all you went to Azkaban for it," Hermione asked him.
The Malfoy patriarch had visibly stiffened at the mention of Azkaban but he finally nodded. "That would be interesting, Miss Granger."
"Alright." Hermione cleared her throat and recited: "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."
Silence settled over the room as the Malfoys contemplated the prophecy. Hermione wasn't sure whether Andromeda had heard it before, but she doubted it.
"So he really died for a moment in the woods?" Narcissa asked finally, her hand shaking as she lifted a scone from the platter.
"Yes, but instead of him, the horcrux within him died and Harry returned," Hermione answered reaching for her third muffin. They were heavenly and she hadn't eaten since eight in the morning.
The Malfoys and Andromeda gasped and looked at her in shock. Mr Malfoy was the first to find his voice again.
"He made the boy a horcrux?" he asked, shock and disgust in his eyes.
"No, Harry was an accidental horcrux. I haven't found too much about the process, but I am sure that a body-less Voldemort couldn't have made him a real horcrux," Hermione answered matter-of-factly.
"How is that even possible?" Narcissa asked, the shock still evident in her voice.
"Lily Potter was given the choice to step aside, to let her son be killed. She didn't and that sacrifice invoked ancient magic that protected Harry from the Killing Curse. It rebounded, hit Voldemort, split of a part of his soul, evaporated his body and caused an explosion. The soul fragment clung to the only living thing in the vicinity, which happened to be Harry. That's why he was able to speak Parseltongue and had a connection to Voldemort," Hermione explained.
"That's why the Dark Lord used Harry for his resurrection. The protection of Mrs Potter would be useless, if he was resurrected with blood of the boy," Mr Malfoy whispered. He looked even paler than normal and Hermione nodded.
"But that's also why it had to be Harry who finally defeated him," Hermione said and reached for a fourth muffin.
"Don't they feed you where you live?" Draco asked teasingly, snatching up a crumb that had fallen from her muffin and popping it into his mouth.
"They do," Hermione said after swallowing. "I just forgot to eat lunch and these are delicious. Congratulations to whoever made them."
"Thank you, Miss Granger," Mr Malfoy said with a sly smile. Hermione wondered whether he thought she would retract her compliment when she knew that he had made them.
"Please call me Hermione, Miss Granger sounds so horribly formal," Hermione answered before realising what she had just done. That man had hated her from the moment she appeared in the wizarding world!
"It would be a pleasure, Hermione. Would you be so kind as to return the favour?" the older wizard asked smoothly, probably years of social training kicking in. For some reason Narcissa smiled proudly at the both of them.
Hermione swallowed. "Of course, Lucius." The name felt so wrong on her tongue, especially without an added Malfoy.
"Pay up, Andy. I told you she would do it," Narcissa said stretching her hand out towards her sister.
Andromeda rolled her eyes. "Yes, you did. Now stop to gloat," she said while summoning a package of Glacial Snow Flakes. They were big snowflakes of (cleaned) glacial snow and spun sugar. You had to levitate them on your tongue since they melted at skin contact.
Narcissa did just that. Somehow she managed to look elegant and regal all the while.
"I am not sure whether I should be outraged or amused that you betted on me, princess," Mr-, no, Lucius drawled. Hermione noted in surprise that Narcissa shot him an annoyed look at the nickname.
"I think I should be appalled but amused, since I seem to have been the main interest of the bet," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow towards Andromeda and Narcissa. The latter had the decency to blush.
"We wondered whether you would accept the invitation to call Lucius by his first name. We were both sure you would ask him to call you Hermione before he did. Narcissa thought it would be fun to bet. And since we both love Glacial Snow Flakes," Andromeda trailed off, shrugging as if to say 'what could I do?'.
"Why wasn't I informed?" Draco asked in fake indignation.
The two sisters looked at each other and shrugged.
"We didn't think you'd be interested," Andromeda admitted.
"Betting on Granger? I'd be in the second I heard of it!" Draco exclaimed, glancing at Hermione as if to make sure she understood he was joking.
"We will remember the next time," Narcissa promised and Draco grumbled good-naturedly.
"Oh, Narcissa, I wanted to ask you something," Hermione said after a moment of companionable silence. "I was cleaning the study adjoining the library in the Black townhouse over the weekend. I found many documents about business deals the Blacks made. After reading most of them I started to wonder who inherited the business?"
"I- Actually that is a good question," Narcissa answered. "Since Sirius was disinherited and Regulus died, they didn't have a male heir. Andy, what do you think who would be the next male descendant?"
Andromeda contemplated the question for a while. "Probably the Burkes, Walburga would have never accepted the Weasleys or the Longbottoms as heirs of Black business. No woman could inherit, the Potters were dead at that point, just like the Prewett brothers and Walburga never liked the Crouches."
"Please don't remind me that I am related to all those people," Draco moaned and Hermione laughed.
"Don't worry, they are all a few times removed," Andromeda teased him.
But Hermione didn't really listen, as she pondered how different the Weasley children could have grown up if they had inherited the Black business. Mr Weasley would have been a bit overwhelmed at first, but as soon as Ginny was a bit older Molly surely would have taken over.
They finished the muffins and Hermione complimented Lucius once again on them. Soon after she left, hugging Draco good-bye as well this time. It was still a bit awkward, but he tried to mask it with thanking her again for writing to Mr Shafiq. He promised he would write Theo as soon as they had eaten dinner and Hermione said she would send Athena to get the letter.
a/n2: Someone asked for fluffiness and I was delighted to deliver fluffiness ;) Next up: Pansy and Hermione have coffee! I hope you have a wonderful September 1st and let's all wish Albus Potter a great Welcoming Feast! :)