Narcissa and Draco finished lunch and made their way to Gringotts. Draco always hated having to take the cart to their bank vault. While he loved flying on his broom, he hated flying or moving fast under anyone else's control.

Feeling very grateful to have made it to their vault in one piece he paused to offer his mother his hand to help her out of the cart.

At least the goblins were still motivated by pure gold lust and did not hold Voldemort's attack on the bank against his followers. Or at least if they did they did allow it to stop them from doing business with anyone wealthy enough to have an ancestral vault.

When he was very young he had loved coming to the vaults and playing with the items found inside. It wasn't until he was older that he realized some of those objects had been very dark artifacts.

There were far fewer of those these days. Not just in their vaults, but anywhere. After the war the Ministry had gone on a crusade to destroy many of the magical items that held dark magic. He thought it was a shame. Not because he wanted to use them, but because it represented one more way in which wizard history was being rewritten and changed.

He would never admit it, but he had a real interest in history. He was one of the few who had ever bothered to pay attention in Professor Binn's class. Along with Hermione, of course.

He learned quickly that his future did not lay in history. He had suggested as a very young child that he might like to teach history when he was grown. His father let him know that menial tasks such as teaching were, in his father's opinion, beneath Malfoys.

Still, he admired tradition and history and considered it a shame that the Ministry was destroying objects out of fear. He knew he would be unlikely to be accepted as a Professor even if no longer felt it necessary to follow anything his father said. The man had destroyed any respect his son still had for him.

Once fully inside the vault, Narcissa dismissed the goblin who would wait outside in the cart for them. While the vault was well organized it was still huge. Draco had no idea where to begin. The place was filled with gold galleons, ancient home furnishings that were still worth a fortune, chest after chest of who knows what and that was before one even got to the magical artifacts.

The bookshelves alone were immense. Draco ran his hand along the spines of a few reading their titles and thinking about how much he would like to show this to Hermione.

He read one "Training your New Muggle Slave to Serve in a Wizard Home" and another "House Elves, the other Grey Meat". OK, maybe he wouldn't be showing these off to Hermione after all…

Narcissa watched her son lovingly. He was the pride of her life. This Granger girl would not have done as a suitable wife for her pureblood prince, but maybe as a pureblood she could be brought up to scratch. She would have to be taught her place among purebloods, of course. And something had to be done about her overly casual appearance, but Draco was correct, she was certainly intelligent.

Any influence she would have over the children's wizarding education would have to be limited so as not to prove an embarrassment to the family, naturally, but Narcissa was convinced she would be able to convince Draco to allow her to oversee the raising of the children. Yes, with the right influence and a proper nanny any of this muggle support non sense would be minimized in the impact it would have on her grandchildren.

Oh, she supposed she would have to keep up an illusion that the witch still had control. It wouldn't do to make an enemy of her. Or, more of an enemy she supposed. Still, she had learned manipulation at her mother's knee and refined it in Slytherin. The headstrong young Gryffindor would not know she was not completely in charge.

Yes, considering how to get around any mud… muggleborn, must remember that it is impolitic to say mudblood any longer, ideology would prove an amusing diversion for a time.

Draco paused only a moment in his examination of the vaults that would one day be his to pull out a chair for his mother. A wave of the wand saw the chair and small desk cleaned and made serviceable.

"Thank you, darling." Narcissa smiled up at Draco. He had always been considerate of her comfort and feelings. He would make a wonderful husband and father.

"Alright, Mother, where do I start looking for this contract? Can I just accio it?" he started to pull his wand back out when Narcissa stopped him with an amused smile.

"Only if you wish to be buried under thousands of parchments. There are many, many Malfoy marriage contracts in this vault.

Draco looked annoyed by this. "Alright, how do we find it?"

"Bring me that chest." Narcissa pointed to a chest across the room.

He did so, levitating it towards her with his wand. When she opened it he says dozens of parchments.

"Why aren't these, or at least the most recent ones with our barrister?" He could not understand why they bothered to pay expensive legal fees if they were just going to hoard everything in their vault. Weren't there others who could handle this?

"Because this contract is supposed to be null and void as your intended is presumed dead." Narcissa continued pouring over the old parchments.

Oh, right, no Astoria Greengrass meant there was no need to keep track of a marriage contract with her. His mother always had the knack for making him feel like a foolish young boy again.

It took almost an hour of searching before Narcissa finally found the chest they were looking for. It would have gone faster but she wanted to stop and reminisce about this marriage or that.

HA! Reminisce is what she called it! Gossip is what Draco called it. Or would have if his mother didn't frighten him in to behaving like a small boy again by threatening to reveal some very candid photos involving him and a bare behind and a white rug. Nope, there were some things one did not say to the woman who had those sort of photographs. One smiled and "reminisced".

"AH HA!" Narcissa cried triumphantly.

"You found it?" Draco rushed to her side.

"Your father's cousin used to brag that she had made a much better contract than I did. Here I have proof that was a lie!" She tucked the scroll into her robes.

"Mother," Draco said with exasperation "we are looking for MY contract, not cousin Nadine's."

"Oh, very well, spoil sport." Narcissa pulled another scroll from wihin her robes.

"You… how long ago did you find that?" Draco asked narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, it was in the second box, but I have so been enjoying reading over all of this history" She smiled up at him. "Snoop." Was another word one did not use with the threat of bare arse photos.

"Oh, and look here! It is intact and… activated? Is there something you neglected to tell me, my son?" She looked at him speculativelt.

"What does 'activated' mean? Draco was confused, dust covered and annoyed. In short in no mood to play guessing games.

"It means, Draco, that both of you have accepted the idea of marriage to one another." Draco knew his feelings finding out Hermione might return them was a revelation.

Could she really harbor a romantic interest in him? He had to find out.