Hermione stared at the strange name on the blue parchment before her. She had never heard of the Trennans. Even Malfoy told her he had never heard of such a pureblood family, he said it sounded a bit like a trumped up Welsh name. Morrigan was a Celtic deity from Hermione's studies. The people who raised her were British with British names. Granger…Jane…her name according to this paper was Hermione Morrigan Trennan, daughter and sole heir to Lady Branwen MacLir Trennan. Now MacLir she could latch onto. There was Manannan Mac Lir that was a Celtic sea god from the popular Mabinogion tales who had led the Tuatha De Dannan into the faerie mounds, also rumored to have been the name behind the Isle of Man. It was such a strange thing, to wonder about your family, who you were. It was perplexing to be so completely in the dark about what you thought you knew.
"Well I would look at it this way, you have a most delicious mystery to occupy your time with," Draco came out of the dressing room with a flourish. He was dressed in expensive black robes with dark emerald accents at his collar and flowing out of the cuffs. They were exquisite and suited Draco perfectly, stylish, extravagant and elegant. Hermione frowned darkly as she took in the sight he presented.
"You can't dress like a Slytherin," she told him, he crossed his arms like a petulant child.
"Why not? I'm proud of my heritage," he whined.
"I'm not a Slytherin and we have to match therefore we should keep the whole Hogwarts thing out of this," she told him reasonably, he huffed and returned to the changing room.
"How about this?" He had a charming grin on his pointed face as he reappeared, she raised a single eyebrow.
"No silver," she pointed to the dressing room.
"This one?" He returned a few moments later.
"You look absolutely ridiculous!" She tried not to screech, he was really starting to grind on her last nerve. She knew he was doing it on purpose, picking out the most awful dress robes just to spite her. It was going on an hour and she still had not looked at what they had for witches.
"Fine, let's switch tactics and see what they have for you," he returned in his usual school robes, she frowned darkly.
"Were you reading my mind again?" She had a warning tone in her voice.
"You can tell by your body language, you wear your emotions on your sleeve," he told her as he moved over to the other side of the shop.
"Fine," she growled as she followed him over. He started picking out dresses in various shades and reminded her that she could alter the color easily and then shooed her off to the dressing rooms. He settled down on a chair to wait for her return.
"I'm not wearing anything you picked out," she came back out a few minutes later.
"Please just try them?" He blinked up at her with wide silver eyes, she huffed and returned to the dressing room. Soon she returned with an awkward expression on her face wearing a revealing silver dress that showed off her ample chest and fell to the ground in soft waves.
"I do not appreciate you dressing me up like a…like a," she gestured at her chest, her face slowly turning red in anger. He couldn't take his eyes off her but finally tore his eyes away and up to her very angry face. Well he now knew that her flush extended all the way down her chest.
"Fine, the next one," he waved her off, she whipped around and stormed off. She returned in a cobalt blue dress that looked amazing. It was strapless and hugged her curves before flaring into starry, romantic waves off her hips. Delicate black swirls flowed up from the bottom hem and a simple black swirl around the top of the dress. He imagined her wearing her lovely soft hair piled onto her head in a messy romantic updo with ringlets to frame her face and a diamond necklace with matching delicate diamond earrings.
"Draco? Draco!" She waved her hand in front of his face to bring him out of his reverie.
"It's perfect," he told her, she blushed as she straightened.
"You think so?" She asked.
"Yes and I know just what to wear to match," He flashed his trademark smirk as he rose from his seat.
"Then we can finally get out of here?" She looked suddenly very happy.
"Yes you don't have to be tortured by clothes shopping anymore," he grumbled and went off to find the tailor to put in the special order for his own dress robes. She hurried to change out of her dress and buy it. Soon they were on their way back to Hogwarts from Hogsmeade, an ice cream cone in Draco's hand and Hermione carrying her new dress robes which were more expensive than she could have ever imagined but Draco paid for them before she could even blink. She was still reeling from multiple facts, the first being that Draco Malfoy had done something genuinely nice for her. The second thing was that she had spent an entire day with him and they had not once tried to even come close to killing each other. It was more than her sensibilities could bare and so they spent the entire walk back in comfortable, thoughtful silence. Soon they were back in the Head Dormitory and Hermione stowed away her dress in her wardrobe before settling down to homework for the next week. She was slacking lately, she was only a week ahead in schoolwork when normally she was at least four or five. She felt like she had so much to do and little time to do it in.
"Hermione? I think I found your mother," Draco appeared later that night from his room. She was in the common room, buried in her work next to the warm fire. She jerked out of her concentration and looked up at the ancient tome open in his hands. He turned to the book around and laid it before her. A hauntingly beautiful woman with wild hair like her own, looking majestic and simply ethereal looked off into the writhing waves of a stormy night. A black dress whipped around her waif-like pale body with her arms raised to the sky. She looked powerful and not of this world. Underneath the picture was printed: "Lady of the Lake."
"Lady of the Lake?" She repeated, looking up at him with a perplexed face.
"Actually that's just a title. There are many Ladies of the Lake, it's actually a title used for whoever rules Avalon. Which is strange because Avalon has been near impossible to access for at least a 100 years," he explained.
"How do you know this is Lady Branwen?" Hermione asked.
"Actually it's her mother, Morrigan MacLir, wife of Manannan Mac Lir," Draco turned the page to a very ancient looking family tree diagram; she studied it for a moment.
"This sounds really, really improbable. How could I be related to these people? They're all popular myth and legend. This reads like a Celtic fairytale or something," Hermione sat back from the book. She even saw Taliesin and Merlin among the people listed and no one she knew was related to such illustrious figures in the Wizarding World.
"Well it would be probable that if you were related to the Queen of Avalon then you would be related to Merlin, Avalon is one of the most magical lands on Earth. It was closed off from the rest of the Wizarding World when the Ministry of Magic became too corrupt. You have to admit that the Ministry hasn't been fair long before the Dark Lord came into power," Draco reasoned.
"There's one thing you're missing though. Where am I on this page?" Hermione gestured at the bottom. Lady Branwen MacLir Trennan isn't listed with a husband, just herself underneath her parents with a brother, Bran the Blessed, king of the Island of the Mighty or later called Britain. She felt so strange, she was only 16 years old, Branwen and Bran were ancient figures of myth and legends. All of this did not add up one bit.
"I don't know," Draco finally cut into her musings; he was also trying to figure it out in his head.
"I guess the mystery endures," Hermione sighed and closed the book carefully. It was the Mabinogion and other Welsh Myths. It had been passed down from before the Roman Invasion.
Author's Note: If you do your research on the Mabinogion, you know that I've only referenced the story and changed it to fit my own story so don't think it's intended to be a straight lift from the legend. Besides it's fragmented and been retold so many times...still a wonderful series and highly recommended. Enjoy! Please review on if you like where it's going!