The dinner was decadent, and Hermione felt well and truly sated. The brandy that she sipped slid warmly down her throat, and she could feel it go all the way down to her belly. Much more relaxed than she had been before and during dinner, she sat reclined against George while Fred had her feet in his lap. He'd taken off her shoes and was lightly stroking her calves.
"Hermione, I was thinking that we could organise the order for the dates now. I was hoping that I could take you to see the houses tomorrow, so we could decide as soon as possible," Lucius said from his high-backed chair while swirling his own glass of brandy, looking every inch the aristocratic villain that he was. Pondering spending time alone with the older Malfoy Hermione decided that she would need to at one point anyway, so why not start with something that was practical.
"Okay, that sounds good. Shall we do lunch and look afterward?" she asked. He nodded his approval and turned his gaze to the fire. "Who wants to go next? I have no preference. I'll have to go on a date with all of you eventually, so the order doesn't really matter," Hermione said waving a hand dismissively.
"Well, how about we go by how well they are known and how much time has been spent already?" Harry asked. He knew that he wouldn't need to spend one on one time with Hermione to get to know her and thought that it would benefit other people more so. Everyone nodded in approval.
"That means that Harry, Fred, George, Charlie, and Neville are last; and I've already spent time with Greg and Adrian. I'm happy to do any time except for dinner tomorrow after looking at the houses. I think that I'll just want to have a bit of alone time then," she paused, "well at least an hour to myself at any rate," she continued. She didn't she might end up booked every moment of every day at this rate.
"I actually want to take you out for breakfast. Not tomorrow, of course, but maybe the day after?" Theo asked quietly.
"Of course, Theo," Hermione replied while starting to mentally construct a timetable, slotting in Lucius and Theo straight away, then gesturing with her hand for the others to put their date times in.
It took them over half an hour and had resulted in more than one argument (mainly about not wanting the same time for the second date or about how long they had to wait in between dates), but they finally had a working timetable. They had also managed to incorporate some of the wedding planning into their rudimentary schedule. Hermione knew that she would have a full, working, three-week plan by the time that Lucius came to collect her at 11 am the next morning. After looking at the houses with him, she would have the night free to spend as she wished. She planned to take a long bath and read several good books, hopefully in her new home. She was still organising in her head when she was nudged in the shoulder. Turning her head she saw that Theo was crouched beside her.
"Sorry, did you say something, Theo? I'm lost in my little world again, I'm afraid," she said with a slight shrug. She did it often, and as they were her actually-proper-but-also-only-nearly-husbands she figured that they would just need to get used to it. Theo grabbed her hand, and she felt something cool slip onto her finger. With her mouth slightly agape, she lifted her hand up to her face. Sitting on her ring finger was the most delicate and intricate ring that she had ever seen. The bright silver complimented the large amount of exquisitely cut stones, all of which she assumed were diamonds. The band consisted of two thin strips that were on either side of a delicate ivy pattern. Each miniature leaf was made up of at least six tiny stones, and each connecting vine was made up of the diamonds too. Hermione nearly had palpitations, this ring had to have cost a small fortune. Looking up from her hand, she saw that Theo was now grinning at her. She figured that it was ultimately from her look of shock and awe. She sat up suddenly and grabbed his hand. Sitting on his finger was a thick matching silver band, but instead of having the design cut out of the ring it was etched into the metal and there was only one leaf. At the centre of the leaf was a small red gem. Hermione dropped Theo's hand and snatched up George's to see the exact same ring, complete with a red gem.
"My ring is absolutely stunning. I am completely blown away by how beautiful it is. Thank you, Blaise and Theo, everyone. I know that I sent you to do the ring finding, but how did you manage to find something like this? How did you manage to get all of you matching rings as well? Like with the meetings, you've only had forty-eight hours!" she exclaimed. A few of the men around the room chuckled.
"Money can do amazing things, Hermione," Sirius said with wryly. He spun his own ring, enjoying the feel of it. Hermione considered this and knew that he was right. The men watched as she went slightly green, and all of them moved towards her in concern.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Neville asked as he pushed passed the others, gently moving a frozen Theo to the side fractionally. Hermione turned her wide eyes from her ring to them all, while her bottom lip trembled slightly.
"You just obviously spent so much money on this, on these rings. I couldn't… I mean I can't ever pay back something like that. I don't have enough money to make a grand gesture, and I'll barely have enough to buy a house that will fit all of us as it is. I'm being forced to stop working eventually which will leave me with even less. I won't be able to support the children! Merlin, I'll have thirty eventually. What kind of mother can't spoil her kids? I can't even cook well! They are going to starve! I'll have many, many starving children, and no money! You will all be working, and I'd feel too bad taking any of your money. Oh, gods, I'm totally unfit to be a wife and a mother…" she finished her rant with a loud high-pitched whine and curled herself into a ball on her side not touching any of her future-but-legally-already husbands anymore. The silence stretched, and Hermione let a barrage of quiet tears fall from her unblinking eyes as none of them refuted what she had said. The moment seemed to continue for a lifetime before one broke out into a gigantic wave of laughter. This caused Hermione to close her eyes in embarrassment. Now they were laughing at her. All she wanted was to curl up in her bed, in her nice little home with a cat. Curling deeper into herself, she started to sob in earnest. This didn't even stop the laughter. Her wishing to disappear into the couch was abated when she heard a loud thump and the laughter was cut off with a strangled cry. Leaping to her feet, she saw a furious Marcus standing over a disgruntled and shocked Charlie who was now sporting a crooked, rapidly bruising and bleeding nose. Placing a hand on Marcus' arm, she got him to face her; and she cupped his jaw with her hand looking straight into his eyes while using the other hand to stroke up and down his arm to calm him down. Their silent moment carried on for a moment before his breathing returned to normal and he snagged her wrist to pull her into a bone-crushing hug. He planted a multitude of small kisses on the top of her head.
"I'm sorry, Princess. I'm so sorry. Its ok now; I've got you," he murmured in between kisses, and she started crying again. He lifted her effortlessly and walked out of the room to take her to the guest suite that he knew Draco had prepared for her.
Once the door had closed and Hermione had been taken out of the room, the rest of the husbands turned murderous glares to the wizard still on the floor. He had enough common sense to look guilty and made no attempt to fix his nose.
"Why the fuck would you do something like that? Who in their right mind starts laughing when a witch tells you how inadequate she feels? Who laughs in her face when she cries about it? What the fuck is wrong with you, Charlie?" Remus yelled as a few heads turned to him surprised at his outburst.
"I wasn't laughing at her. I was laughing at the fact that she is a ridiculous witch if she thinks any of that rubbish. I…" he sighed in defeat. "Well, I just completely fucked up, didn't I?" Charlie's statement was met with vigorous nods. Most of them were thinking that it was lucky that Marcus had hit first because if anyone else had they probably wouldn't have stopped. Marcus knew how much damage that he could do with only one punch. Even then it looked as though even he may not have stopped was it not for Hermione's intervention.
"I understand we agreed to put our differences aside for the sake of the witch, but I don't think that I'll be able to be civil with you anytime soon, Mr. Weasley," Greg said quietly. He hadn't had much to do with her in the past, but the time he had spent with her in the last two days had shown him how lucky he had been to snag her as his partner (especially as he had been dead). Shaking his head, he turned away from the group and headed up to Hermione's room.
No one attempted to help Charlie up. He didn't try to move either, so he just stayed on the floor. The rest moved to sit back down and have quiet conversations in small groups.
Remus, Fred, and George were discussing how they could cheer Hermione up. Fred suggested that Remus bring Teddy to her work, but Remus wasn't convinced that a child would fix her thoughts about her capability of being a mother. George ruled out using any of their products on their brother as she really wouldn't approve. Fred's eyes lit up, and he ran to the nearest floo. Shrugging their shoulders the other two went back to operation: Cheer Hermione Up.
Lucius, Severus, and Sirius sat farther away from the rest because they were intent on plotting revenge on behalf of the tiny witch. None of them would ever admit it out loud but seeing Hermione like that had squeezed their heart to the point of bursting. Sirius, having known Hermione quite well when he had been alive the first time, knew how sensitive she was even though she acted like she didn't care. It took everything in his power not to Avada Charlie on the spot.
Severus was equally protective of Hermione; she had been under his protection for the better part of six years. He had watched her grow up, and, while he had never been overly pleasant to her during that time, he was impressed by her intellect and attitude. Redoubling his thinking efforts, he went back to trying to think up a suitable punishment.
Lucius was of a similar vein of thinking to Severus. He had been taken off guard from the first time they had met when she had been an obnoxious young girl, too full of self-righteousness. He had seen her be tortured by Bellatrix, in the room not too far from where they were now, and she hadn't broken, no matter what she was put through. It was then that he had decided that it would be the light side he fought for in the end. Watching her doubt herself tonight had been hard for him, and that was a surprise. While he counted himself lucky to have been partnered with a witch of her calibre, he wasn't expecting anything akin to feelings to bloom, especially not this soon. He was stuck deep in that thought, as Severus and Sirius debated the effectiveness of using the cries of a juvenile Mandrake root as a torture device.
Closer to the fire Blaise, Neville and Theo had conjured chairs and were letting the warm flames lick against their face.
"Maybe we should get her something," Blaise mused. He twisted the new ring on his finger and fought the urge to smile. He noticed Theo twisting his own and had seen all the others do it too. To him, it was a reminder that he hadn't been stuck with a person whom he could never love. Granted he knew that he didn't love her now (he cared about her and wanted her to be happy), but one day he knew that he could.
"That's a great idea! What do you think that she would want? A pet maybe? I know that she used to have that orange, million-pound, miniature, lion she called a cat…"
"Crookshanks," Neville interrupted without looking away from the flames.
"But somehow I don't think getting a replacement will make her happy. She flipped out over the rings so maybe not jewellery," Theo finished. Neville turned to look at them, with a slow grin stretching across his face.
"I know the perfect thing to get her; are you all up for a night-time outing? I promise that we will be back within the hour," Neville said while standing up. He then went to tell Harry that he was leaving with the two others, just in case something happened, and they needed to be notified. The three apparated away after getting told the location.
Taking the opportunity to relocate, Harry, Adrian and Draco took the newly vacated chairs. Never having spent any time alone with Adrian, Harry wasn't sure how to start a conversation. Thankfully Draco picked up the conversation ball.
"I think that Granger is going to be fine. From now on we all make an effort to make her feel like she isn't failing. We need to remind her that she hasn't failed at anything before and this is going to be no different," he said taking on a casual air, but Harry could see the seriousness in his eyes. Adrian said nothing just opting to nod before rising and leaving the room, which left Harry and Draco in an awkward silence. Clearing his throat, Harry spoke first.
"I want to start over. I know that the group came to a consensus to make things work for Hermione's sake, but I think that you and I affect her the most. Hermione has seen us be nothing but hostile and hateful towards one another and you towards her, and I think that us actually being friends might make all the difference. What do you say, Malfoy?" Harry extended his hand towards the other man, and only after a moment of hesitation Draco reached out too.
"Deal. But only for Hermione," Draco paused and a small smile came upon his lips. "I never hated her, by the way. Weren't you ever told that boys only teased the girls that they liked?" Harry had no response for that, so the two sat in silence and contemplated how this friendship would go.
Out in the library, Greg, who had been distracted from getting to Hermione with a sudden idea, had taken up a spot far down in the back and was surrounded by a number of thick tombs. He looked quite similar to how Hermione herself looked, more often than not, and the material in question was something that Hermione would have given anything for. The title of the book he was currently perusing was 'Mating Rituals; Who, When, Why and How.' He had decided that if Hermione had more knowledge about how the rituals worked then she might be able to believe that she can actually handle being their wife. He didn't mean 'handle' as come to terms with being a housewife, but rather that she would be able to see that she was the one who would be looked after, she was the one who had the final say in the decisions and she was the one who made the rules. He hoped that he would be able to find enough material. He wasn't the best at finding information, and while struggling, he still wanted to do this for her. They'd only known each other for two days, but in his eyes, Hermione was the one who had saved him. She was the one whom he would be joined to forever, and he wanted to make sure that she knew just how incredible she was. She had to be amazing to pull off this ritual, to get so many husbands and to bring back the dead. From what he had read so far, she was the only one in history to ever do that. He put the book back down on the table and rubbed a hand over his face. It was now past 10 pm, and they were all in for a huge week. Just as he was about to pack it in, he heard the doors open and footsteps make their way towards him. Adrian's head poked around the shelves.
"What are you doing back here? I thought you'd gone to see Hermione. I was going to head up there myself, but I saw that someone was in here and wanted to check it out," Adrian said while smiling at the now confused look on Greg's face.
"There is a new type of security in the Manor. It works like a registry and census, but it updates automatically and is always changing. Each room has sensors and a person or creature is marked down both on the main list and on the door of the room itself. My company is looking at adapting it to read magical signatures so that we can see who is where, rather than just that someone is there. Theo and Draco are working on a prototype," he explained. Greg contemplated that for a few seconds before nodding.
"You should see if Hermione can help with that. From what I remember of school she was exceptionally gifted in all subjects. Anyway, I'm here looking up the ritual and others to try and show her that she is perfectly suited to be our wife and the mother of our children. If she wasn't she wouldn't have been chosen. Simple as that," Greg said while looking forlornly at all of the unopened books. Sighing, he closed the one in his hands and stood to have a stretch.
"Come on Greg, let's go see if Marcus has managed to calm our little witch down," Adrian said while slinging an arm over Greg's shoulders.
For the last ten minutes, Marcus had been holding Hermione. They were currently laying down on her bed, with her small form snuggled in against him; and he had one arm holding her to him. Her hands were clutching at his shirt, and his free hand was stroking her hair. Her sobs had subsided, but she was still crying.
"It's ok; I'm sure that there was something else. You wouldn't have gotten a husband that would so callously laugh at you while you cry. Come on. It's ok, sshh," he cooed quietly while trying to get her to stop crying. Like the others, Marcus had already decided that he at the very least liked the witch. Seeing her crumple like this after being so strong normally had sent him near cardiac arrest. When he had seen Charlie laughing at her, he couldn't help but picture the immediate pain of the older man. He knew that one punch would be enough to harm him without permanent damage, and he wasn't going to beat the man to a pulp even though he deserved it. Hermione didn't need to see that, nor did she have to have one husband in jail while the other one was in the hospital. He felt her breathing even out and looked down to see her huge, watery eyes staring up at him. He used his thumb to wipe away the last of the tears that she had left to rest on her face. He couldn't help the small smile that formed when she unconsciously pressed her face closer into his palm.
"Do you really think that he was laughing at something else?" Hermione asked in a small shaking voice.
"Of course. There is no way that you would have gotten anyone who would do that. You're too kind and nice for that," he said.
"You think that I'm nice?" the question popped out of her mouth before she could stop it. Even though she was blushing, she didn't look away. Marcus' small smile turned into a 1000-watt grin, and Hermione remembered back to much earlier in the day when she couldn't help but stare. His smile was just as distracting as his body had been.
"Of course, I think you're nice. I was ahead of you at school, but I remember you. I remember… vaguely… when you were helping Neville find his frog. That's a nice thing to do for a stranger. I saw in the papers what you did to help those who had survived the war. You bought them a house and set it up as an orphanage, and now even you've rallied nurses and doctors to be there for the wives of this absurd law. you made sure that no one was treated unfairly. I know that Adrian is grateful, and I'm sure that the others that you saved, and their families are grateful as well. I can assure you, Hermione, that if you are anything, you are nice, and people notice it," he finished. Hermione was a little more than shocked. She knew Marcus to be a quiet wizard who didn't really say anything, but his impromptu speech about her made her feel warm all the way from her toes to the ends of her hair. While they were looking at each other, with fresh tears brimming in Hermione's eyes and Marcus' hand still pressed against her face they started to move closer together. Hermione closed her eyes, and she felt him continue to pull her face closer to his. Just as his lips touched hers, he pulled her body against his and splayed his hand over her waist and hip. A knock sounded at the door, growling quietly he released Hermione. He got up, leaving her slightly dazed and sprawled across the bed, and the newly opened door revealed Adrian and Greg. Marcus let them in but crawled back into bed and pulled Hermione close again. Adrian chuckled at Marcus' display of affection.
No one else would know, except for Adrian, but Marcus barely showed any witch attention except for having a piece of eye candy. To see him like this with Hermione made him happy. Adrian raised an eyebrow and made a 'move over' motion. Even though he rolled his eyes Marcus did so and took Hermione with him. Adrian then jumped onto the bed causing Hermione to laugh. He moved up to her side and kissed her temple. Greg hopped onto the bed as well, but he chose to lay on Hermione's legs and rest his head on her stomach. Still laughing, she maneuvered so that he was laying in between her legs on his back. Sighing contently, she snuggled down and pressed her face into Marcus' chest again. Her hips stayed flat to accommodate Greg, and her shoulders turned to make her neck comfortable. Surprisingly, this was the most comfortable that she had been before going to sleep in a long time.
"I don't suppose that I'll be going anywhere else tonight. Are you three on guard Hermione duty?" she asked with a yawn.
"No kitten, Greg and I wanted to see you. But since it's nearly 11 pm, we thought that we'd have our first sleepover," Adrian mumbled into the back of her neck as he had already moved to spoon her side. The movement of his lips against her skin had goose bumps breaking out all over her skin, and she felt him smile as he noticed. Before she could even mutter goodnight, she had fallen asleep.