"Let me do this right," Draco told her, laughing. He picked her up, nudging the door open, and set her down lightly in their new home.
"You're silly, you know that?" Hermione was blushing lightly as she straightened her clothes again. "But I love you."
"Mhm. And that's why you put up with me, right?" He laughed again, brushing his fingertips lightly against hers.
"Of course," she said, laughing with him. She still glowed from their honeymoon in the tropical sun of Cancun. She looked around the manor's front room, and sighed thoughtfully. "I think we should have a party. You know, just our close friends."
And she had no idea the consequences of that party.
Hermione was happy as she answered the door to let Ginny, Ron, Fred, and George in. Draco's friends had arrived earlier, and seemed to like her a lot. She'd been worried they'd hold the past against her and her friends. She had been even more worried that they would still only see her as Muggle-born, or, worse, only liked her because she wasn't.
No worries, though. They'd been nothing but kind, and Pansy had even come up to her and apologized. They'd been chatting while Draco and Blaise had gone off to talk to old school friends. Then the doorbell had rang, and Hermione was sure that the hostility of school days had melted away with age and maturity.
"Hey, you guys! Where's Harry and Lav?" She asked them.
"I'm right here, Hermione!" Lavender called out, waving an arm, barely seen behind Fred's head. Hermione noted that she and Ron were holding hands.
Then, there was a swirl in the air, and Harry appeared. He winked at her. "Gotcha!" Again, Hermione noticed something. As soon as the Invisibility Cloak was off, his hand automatically reached for Ginny's.
"Is there something you would like to tell me?" She looked at Ginny, Lavender, Harry, and Ron. "I mean, Ginny. I know you caught my bouquet, but this doesn't look very sudden, exactly."
"Well…" She blushed. "When you left for the honeymoon, Harry and I rediscovered a few sparks…"
"And I got the nerve to tell Ron – thanks to your marvelous open bar at the reception – that I'd had a crush on him all through school." At Lavender's explanation, Hermione's jaw nearly dropped.
"You what!" Her eyes looked like dinner plates, and her mouth was a perfect O of shock. "And you guys acted like me being adopted, a Pureblood, and falling for Draco was surprising!" She grinned.
Leading the group farther into the manor, where the party was being held, Hermione walked over to Pansy. "Pansy, you remember Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Lavender from the wedding and school, of course." Her smile kept on her face but a moment after. It faded the second she saw the sneer on Pansy's face, the look in her eyes, and the overall change in her.
"Of course I do. And they're still good-for-nothings."
The expression on Hermione's face changed instantly. Her mouth hardened in a single line, and her eyes turned icy with fury. "You apologized to me, Pansy. For treating me the way you did in school. I thought you'd matured, grown up, like the rest of us. I must have been wrong, because you are acting exactly the same." She quickly turned on her heel, and walked toward Draco.
Slightly confused and mildly angry – at Pansy, of course – the group followed her.
She simply looked one moment at Draco and her content demeanor returned. "Hello, Draco," she said, giving him a short hello kiss. "And hello to you, too, Blaise. I had the most interesting chat with your wife," she said calmly. "That is, until she decided to revert to being childish and immature. It seems she still holds a grudge of some sort against my friends."
Blaise looked at the group trailing his friend's new wife. "I wonder why," he said sarcastically. Draco and Hermione looked on, shocked, as the party split in two groups. The former Slytherin students slunk behind Blaise and Pansy while the former Gryffindors stood slightly behind Harry and Ginny.
They each tried to calm their friends, but were shoved aside.
"Hermione, this has to be done! Half of these people were Death Eaters-in-training when we got rid of Voldemort," Harry told her defiantly. "And even if they hadn't been, you remember how they treated all of us in school – especially the three of us!" He glanced back at Ron before returning to Hermione.
"Draco! You know this has been a long time coming," Blaise told his old friend with fire in his tone. "If you weren't married to one of them, I'd be demanding that you join us. In fact, even that shouldn't be stopping you! Hermione is your wife, shouldn't you be calling the shots? Who exactly wears the pants in your family, Draco?"
"Hermione, what are you thinking? Don't stop us," Harry began speaking again. "We're okay with Draco now – that doesn't mean we'll ever be at peace with them."
"Get out," Draco growled at his group of "friends".
"I think you should all go for a walk," Hermione told him calmly. "Harry, take a deep breath. Look. They're leaving. Go home. Please. Just… let it go."
After everyone had finally left, Hermione turned towards Draco, falling into him.
"God, do our friends have issues," she managed jokingly.
Draco just rubbed his hand over her back and murmured in her ear, "I'm so sorry."