Disclaimer: See Prologue

A big thanks and a shoutout goes to:

lovenotknown – The black mist hasn't even been halfway as exposed as it will be before long. I'm glad you enjoy this story. It's becoming one that is fun as well as difficult to write, because there are so many different sub-plots that I have to begin working in.

Reanne1102 – I know. Hermione and Shry would be a fairly nice couple, but I plan on elaborating more on that when they return to Hogwarts. Hermione will be nice and married, and there will be nothing for it. I'm glad you enjoy my writing skills...there are times when they frustrate me, because it's really my only outlet. Yeah, can't Draw. Anyway...on with the chapter

evillizzy89 – Yes, this is a Draco/Hermione Fanfiction and it will continue to be one. Just because I throw in a twist does not mean that I will alter the original, basic plotline of the story. I set out, in the very beginning, to make this a Draco/Hermione Fic with very little real idea of the plot. As such, it shall remain a Draco/Hermione fic. No worries there.

Welp...it's a wee bit late, but here it is. Your next chapter of By the Blood, I Commend You. Oh...for the record, no the title is NOT a misspelling. I know very well what "Commend" means as opposed to "Command." Had I meant to write "By the Blood, I Command You," then that's what I would have written. Even if I had made a spelling error, I would have caught it and altered it immediately. Now that that's cleared up and there are no more lingering questions...here you are.

Yours,

Allison

Chapter 11

There were times when Hermione would gladly trade all of the smarts in the world- nay- all of the books in the world to be a guy. For one, guys had a tendency to discriminate against the 'weaker' opposite sex. A guy could hang out among a group of girls and work with them and after some time, they would forget that he was a guy...treating him as one of the girls. For a girl thrown into a group of guys, however, there was no such nondescrimination. The men in the group always remembered that the female was, indeed, a female, and treated her as such. Such behavior could be quite annoying and endlessly bothersome, so it was understandable that Hermione often wished that she could be a man.

This, however, was not one of those times.

She had pictured the meeting between the Malfoys and the Weasleys to be tense and charged, but she had had the misguided conception that for the sake of Draco and herself, they would put aside their differences. Not so. Narcissa and Molly might have been accepting of each other- indeed, they proved to be quite the pair- but Lucius and Arthur held no such reservations. The testosterone levels in the immediate vincity had risen to a choking, desperate intensity, and that was that. Draco, Harry, and Ron had immediately been at each other's throats, causing the testosterone levels to rise to even higher peaks- which were at record highs to begin with, Hermione was sure- and a fight had very nearly broken out in the middle of the train station.

What they had not counted on, however, was Hermione and her tendency to be a witch- spelled differently, of course- the moment someone was threatening her already fragile happiness. In the middle of the war, after all, there was very little happiness...especially when one was being forced to marry one's sworn enemy. All in all, Hermione was not happy.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" The young witch's voice, incensed, silenced the entire station. Upon noticing that they were not the subjects of the powerful woman's wrath, the majority of the populace resumed their business immediately, leaving the group of blondes and redheads to face it alone. "You're acting like children! Now calm yourselves and let us get on our way!" Hermione's voice brooked for no argument, and when none were forthcoming, the witch levitated her trunk to a trolly and swept from the station like a queen.

Arthur Weasley watched her go, unsure whether to be amused or annoyed. Lucius, it seemed, had clearly chosen annoyed, for he was glaring daggers at the young woman's back. Arthur smirked, "Good luck with your ball." Was all he said as he swept past the blonde, Molly, Ron, Ginny, and Harry following. Draco bid a quick goodbye to Blaise and Pansy before he hurriedly ran after his fiancee. Lucius looked at Narcissa silently for a long moment.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" He asked quietly. She shook her head and the two of them disapparated.

Outside, Hermione was already waiting, arms crossed and toe tapping...besides the cars that the ministry had sent along to cart them all back to the Burrow. Draco looked at Ron, who shrugged. "Don't look at me, Malfoy! She's your fiancee." He hurried to the cars and began to load things in with Harry's help. Now that they were fully qualified wizards- with only their final year at Hogwarts standing between them and their careers of choice (though in Harry's case, it was admittedly not much of a choice.) they were able to use their wands for the job, which got it done in record time...despite Hermione's shrill protests about some of the magic-sensitive things in her trunk.

Things at the Burrow were no better. If anything, they got worse. Charlie, Bill, and Percy were bad enough, but adding the twins to the mix was death for poor Draco. Hermione had been ushered upstairs by Ginny before she could warn the Weasley Clan- who looked upon her as if she were a baby sister- to keep their paws off of her fiance and their mouths to themselves. She sighed and- despite knowing that she should go save her future husband from her honorary 'brothers'- sank onto Ginny's bed and rested against the headboard.

"What am I doing, Gin?" She asked, softly. "Draco and I will never get along!"

"Yes, you will." Ginny said, sternly. "You're already getting better at getting along. Why...four months ago, you couldn't even be within ten feet of each other without hexing or screaming at each other!"

"And now I'm marrying him..." Hermione let out a groan and dropped her face into the pillows, shaking her head. "What the hell am I doing!"

"Securing your future in the Magical World." A soft, deep, recognizable voice came from the doorway. Ginny and Hermione shot around to stare as Draco stepped in. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Of course not..." Ginny said, hurrying for the door. On her way past him, she whispered, "Please do something..."

Draco hardly registered the redhead's voice as he caught sight of the tears in Hermione's eyes, spilling out at the sight of her fiance to trail down her cheeks...small paths of forlorn longing. Longing for something he wanted so desperately to give her. Following instinct, he moved to one of the few friendly faces in this- more or less- foreign place, sinking onto the bed beside her and pulling her close to him, resting his head against hers.

"You're too good of a witch to lose your future, Hermione." Draco murmured. She shifted in his arms before leaning up to look at him. As they always seemed to, his storm-cloud eyes turned endless. It would have been so easy to just lose herself in his eyes...to finish what they'd begun so long before, only to be interrupted by Natasha.

"Draco..." She whispered, softly. There was a world's worth of expression in that one world alone. He leaned in slowly, his eyes darkening steadily, to brush his soft, warm lips across her own. After a moment, he kissed her again, lips still soft and barely brushing hers. After several more of these feather-light kisses, she could stand it no more, and she leaned up, pulling his lips down into a much longer, much deeper kiss.

"Hermione, Mum was just wondering if yo..." George cut off abruptly, staring with wide eyes into the room. Draco and Hermione pulled back from each other quickly- almost guiltily- and turned towards the door.

"If I what, George?" Hermione asked, clearing her throat.

"If you...minded helping with dinner..." George stared, his jaw stil hanging open. Hermione looked up at Draco and, seeing his nod, she slipped from the bed and walked past George, stopping to lift one hand and use her first two fingers to close his mouth. He seemed almost petrified, not moving even when Draco slipped from the bed and followed the brunette from the room.

Downstairs, Arthur was opening the door to admit Pansy and Blaise, who grinned and nodded at Harry and Ron before looking towards the stairs as Hermione and Draco emerged. Pansy's eyes widened and she burst out with laughter at the sight of them. Blaise glanced up to see what she was looking at, before he smirked as well, crossing his arms. Draco and Hermione noticed them and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, uncertainly. She looked darkly at Harry. "You didn't hit Pansy with a tickle charm did you...?"

"No..." Harry said, staring at her. He looked slightly green.

"Nice...job...Draco..." Pansy gasped out through her laughter.

"I...think I'm going to be sick." Ron murmured. Draco stared at them all in silence for a long moment before looking at Hermione in confusion. A slow smirk broke out on his face. Hermione, by this time, was rather fed up with the lot of them.

"What? What is it!" She demanded of her fiance, who reached over and took her hand, pulling her in front of a small mirror looking over the sitting room, pulling the hair back from her face as he stood behind her...nearly a foot taller than her, his cheek resting against the side of her face as he watched in amusement. "DRACO MALFOY! YOU GAVE ME A...A..."

"It's called a hickey, Granger. What are you going to...oof!" He doubled over as his air left him in a rush, her elbow having firmly slammed into his diaphram. He managed to look up through his weezing just to see the brown curled hair of his fiancee flouncing into the kitchen. There was an uneasy silence in the room before Bill, with one arm around Fleur, laughed softly.

"Welcome to the family, Malfoy."

SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK

"Thank you, Mr and Mrs Weasley, for your hospitality." Draco said, formally. Hermione and her father were busy bickering over the luggage and how to pack it into the back of the Grangers' sedan.

"You are welcome at any time, Draco. You and Hermione both." Molly said with a smile. She had practically adopted the blonde- much to his chagrine- during the two days that the couple had been at the Burrow.

"Dad, I'm telling you, it'll fit better if I do this!" Hermione's voice carried to them and Draco rolled his eyes.

"I'll be sure to tell her. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd best go intervene before they start screaming at each other." Draco said, hurrying to Hermione and her father and cutting in, packing the sedan with several quick motions and a wand-flick.

"MALFOY! NOBODY ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!"

"I know. You're welcome." Was all he said before climbing into the back seat of the sedan.

"Infuriating...brainless..." Hermione muttered darkly to herself as she climbed into the passenger's seat, slamming the door. Mr. Granger chuckled, looking at Mrs. Weasley.

"Young love." He stated, simply.

Molly shook her head, fighting back a smile. "To think, courtships used to be full of flowers and chocolates. Now, courtships are screaming and storming off to different rooms."

"That bad?"

"I don't think those two have gone two consecutive hours since they arrived without fighting." Molly said.

"I'll keep that in mind...maybe Annelise can take Hermione shopping tomorrow to give the two of them a break." Carver Granger said, fighting back a smile as he walked around to the driver's seat of his sedan, starting it up and pulling away.

"I wonder if Lucius Malfoy knows what he's getting into." Bill commented to Charlie, who smirked.

"Not likely. At least Severus and Draco will be there to bail him out when he pisses Hermione off." Percy put in, chuckling.

SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK

"You and Draco seem rather close...when you're not screaming at each other." Annelise Granger said as she took a shirt off of a rack and studied it, holding it up in front of herself and looking in the mirror. A pile of packages rested behind the two women already, and two piles of clothing waited draped over two chairs to be bought.

"Draco and I...I don't know what we are. We were enemies." Hermione said, calmly, as she pulled out a shirt and looked at it before putting it back. "We need to drop into Diagon Alley for a new set of dress robes for the Malfoy ball. I don't think they'd appreciate it if I showed up in a muggle ball gown." She said, absently.

"Alright. We can go there, next." Annelise replaced the shirt and kept shuffling through the clothes.

"Great...I think I'm done here...nothing else looks good." Hermione stated.

"Agreed." Her mother picked up everything and carried it up to the counter while Hermione picked up their packages and went out to wait on the sidewalk. When her mom joined her, they walked along together until they reached the Leaky Cauldron. Stepping inside, Hermione stretched and promptly shrunk their packages, placing them all into one larger package.

"Hermione!" Annelise said, shocked.

"It's alright, mum. I'm fully qualified now. I'm of age in the Wizarding World." Hermione soothed, leaving her mother flabbergasted as she stepped up to the blank wall and tapped out the pattern opening the doorway into Diagon Alley. As it opened, Hermione motioned and she and Annelise walked into the bustling Wizarding section of London. Glancing around, Hermione fought her way to Gringots and inside, where she showed a goblin her key and- leaving her mother (who hated riding on the rails) to wait in the lobby- travelled to her vault to gather some money. She had worked long and hard during the summers since her fourth year to save up for a start after school, so she had a pretty generous pile of money saved up. Scooping some into a small bag, she and the goblin returned to the surface.

On their way out of the bank, Hermione spotted a familiar blonde head. She glanced at her mother before hurrying forward. "Mr. Malfoy!" As the tall blonde and his wife turned, they spotted her and smirked, moving through the masses to the point where Hermione and Annelise stood on the grand steps of the bank.

"Hermione, dear, what have I told you about calling us by our first names?" Narcissa scolded as they approached.

"I'm sorry Narcissa, but I wanted to make sure you heard me." Hermione said. "I don't believe you've met my mother, Annelise Granger?" She motioned. "Mum, this is Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy...Draco's parents."

"And how is my son faring in the muggle world?" Narcissa asked, a bit of a twinkle in her eye. "He hasn't done anything extraordinarily dumb, has he?"

Ignoring her mother's look of alarm, Hermione laughed softly. "No, Narcissa, he hasn't. I've been keeping a leash on him well enough...though my mother." She slanted her eyes towards her mom, here. "Seems utterly determined to keep me away from him for the day. Our...displays of affection...are unsettling to some people." She fought not to keep from laughing at Lucius' flabbergasted look.

"If that's affection, that Volde-person that you're always talking about must be head over heels for muggle-borns." Hermione thought she heard her mother mutter. Narcissa, it seemed, had heard as well, for she hid a laugh with a delicate cough.

"Is it that bad?" She directed her question to Annelise.

"Worse." Hermione's mom said.

"Oh you poor dear. I'll buy you a drink, shall I? Hermione, Lucius, we'll be in the Leaky Cauldron when you've finished your shopping." Narcissa said, escorting Annelise away.

"Oh my." Hermione said, staring after her mother. "Poor mum. She's never had wizarding alcohol." She explained at her soon-to-be father-in-law's inquiring glance.

"Oh?" Lucius looked after the women. "Oh my, indeed." They watched as the women disappeared into the Leaky Cauldron before turning to each other. "Well then, what brings you to Diagon Alley today, my dear?" Lucius asked.

"I remembered that Ron spilt juice all over my dress robes. It wouldn't be so bad, but it was juice with Fred and George's famous no-remove staining juice. My mother and I were in Muggle London anyways, today, and I didn't think your guests would enjoy it overmuch if I arrived at the ball in a muggle gown, so we stopped here to pick up a set of dressrobes." Hermione explained.

"I see." Lucius said, slowly. "I will attend, I believe. A fresh opinion may help, yes?" Hermione kept her grimace from her face, nodding obediently. "Good, then!" At the wizard's motion, Hermione sighed and moved in the direction of Madam Malkin's, humming to herself over the din of the crowd. When Lucius heard her, he bit back a smirk. "You know...it is tradition, once about every century or so, for a wizard to get himself the fancy idea of flying about the world, delivering goodies to children on Christmas Eve." He said.

"Oh?" Hermione inquired as he held open the door to Madam Malkin's.

"Indeed." He stepped in behind her, glad to be out of the cold, and continued. "In fact, often times, this particular man is spotted. Incidentally..." Here, he allowed his lips to twist into a wry smirk. "The originator of this semi-tradition was a man named Nicholas Masiachi, a wizard who- quite foolishly- healed a muggle child's blindness...earning him the title of Saint."

"Saint Nick?" Hermione asked.

"The same. Ah, Madam. I don't suppose you could fit my future Daughter-in-Law with one of your finest works, could you? Just put it on the Malfoy tab."

"But..." Hermione began, just to have Lucius hold up his hand.

"Nothing for it, my dear." The blonde said, his drawl back in place now that the crowd wasn't around to disguise his words from the general public. "Draco's bride must be positively stunning for the ball. I'll hear nothing said in protest." He said, firmly.

Sighing, she conceded defeat. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy." She stated, even as the magical measuring tapes began their work.

SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK

Upon Hermione's arrival home, she knew something was amiss immediately. Her mother had been slightly too inebriated to drive, so Hermione had been the one to drive out of London and to their home in the country-side, pulling in to their house and stopping the car, looking suspiciously at the dark house.

"Mum..." When her mother- now suffering the hangover that was the side-effect of having been drunk- looked up, Hermione pulled her wand. "Stay here. I'll be right back." She silently walked up to the house and pushed the already-open door so that it swung inwards. Walking into the house, Hermione's eye slanted back and forth silently.

What she saw on the couch made her stop, a soft smile coming to her face. She didn't know why the front door had been left open, but Draco was sprawled across the couch while her dad snored nearby in the recliner, both completely oblivious to Hermione's presence. Chuckling to herself, Hermione was careful not to wake the two men as she helped her mother up and into her room, digging around Draco's trunk for one of his headache potions and giving it to her mother before settling her to bed. She moved her dad up to bed with a levicorpus spell, and she brought down one of the warm, fuzzy, throw blankets from her own bed, tucking it around Draco before closing and locking all of the doors, slipping up the stairs to bed herself.

SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK

"WAKE UP GRANGER!"

"KISS MY ASS, MALFOY!"

"BARE IT, GRANGER!"

"I WILL!"

"I WAS KIDDING! STOP STOP STOP!" A long silence rang through the Granger household after this outburst and Annelise and Carver peered towards the stairs warily, expecting the silence to end at any second. Sure enough, there was a squeal- though this one was very unlike the squeals of rage that they'd become slowly accustomed to over the past day and a half- and then silence again.

Footsteps racing down the stairs and their daughter- dressed in a loose blue cashmere turtleneck sweater and a pair of white jeans- burst into the room, running to them and holding out her left hand. The day before, her left ring-finger had been empty of any adornment. Now, however, there was an elegant but simple silver band stretching around it, adorned only with a small, perfectly cut diamond in the shape of a heart. "Look!" Hermione squealed. Draco, Carver noticed, stepped off of the last step behind the young woman, a small, strange smile on his face as he watched Hermione.

It was then that Carver felt a thrill of recognition rush through his veins. It was the same way that he himself looked at his beloved Annelise when she wasn't looking. The way that he'd seen Arthur Weasley watching Molly when her back was turned. The marriage would be arranged, and Carver doubted that his beloved daughter would ever forgive the Ministry of Magic...but in his future Son-in-Law's expression, in those precious moments when Hermione and Annelise gushed over the ring, Carver saw written- plain as day- the true kind of love that didn't fade, even after it had been abused and battered to the end of time.

Draco Malfoy had done what would previously have been unthinkable to those around him.

He had fallen for Hermione Granger.