Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
The In-laws
Glancing towards Draco and Hermione, Blaise took the letter off the bed and opened it gently pulling out the parchment. Scanning it quickly he looked at Draco worryingly. Taking a deep breath he read it aloud.
Son,
We have heard news of your pairing and have resigned ourselves to Miss Granger as the mother of our grandchildren. In light of the news and as is appropriate for your betrothal, we will come to visit you on the 12th of September for the proper welcoming dinner. We are looking forward to this little, shall we say, meet and greet.
With love,
Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.
The next thing they knew Hermione had jumped out of bed like a flash of lightning and began to pace up and down the floor stressing out and panicking while muttering under her breath.
"Hermione it's going to be fine" whined Draco childishly.
"For you maybe but the last time your father and I met we weren't even on speaking terms. This is a big deal," she snapped venomously.
"Okay. Try to calm down. Why don't you get back into bed and we'll talk about this tomorrow?" suggested Blaise evenly.
"There is just one problem with your assumption." She spat. Receiving a raised eyebrow in return.
"The 12th of September is tomorrow!" she said through gritted teeth.
She continued, "I swear to Merlin, if the two you continue to stare at me like two befuddled first years I will hex your collective balls into a single sack!" Both boys' eyes widened at Hermione's statement and they leaped out of bed. Blaise grabbed Hermione around her curved waist and heaved her on to his shoulder. He thanked Quidditch for his strength as he wouldn't have been able to lift her otherwise.
"Blaise, Blaise put me down this instant, do you hear me BLAISE!?" screamed Hermione angrily while beating her clenched fist against his back however he was much stronger than her and he didn't feel any pain from her hands and tightened his grip on her. Meanwhile Draco was laughing at her situation from behind them.
Arriving in the living room, Blaise gently placed Hermione on the chocolate coloured couch and sat down next to her. Scowling at Blaise she looked towards Draco and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay this is what we're going to do…" spoke Draco.
"Wait a minute why are we doing what you're gonna say" asked Hermione frowning
"Because Granger they are my mum and dad and I've grown up with them for 16 years that's why," retorted Draco with a smug grin as he saw her frown deepen.
"So where was I… oh yes my mum and dad. We could make them spaghetti carbonara with slices of garlic bread or roast chicken and mash potatoes, carrots, green beans, cabbage, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and chicken gravy on the side. For pudding we could have rhubarb and apple crumble with thick oozing vanilla custard or rich chocolate cake with warm melting chocolate seeping out from the middle and chocolate custard on the side."
"I think we should have spaghetti carbonara and rhubarb and apple pie," suggested Blaise simply.
"I agree actually and we should have white wine too. This could work. What do you guys think?" Asked Hermione cautiously. Receiving two nods she relaxed a little having plotted a course of action for what they would serve for dinner tomorrow. This made the event just a bit easier.
"Who's going to make the dinner?" asked Hermione calmly but scowled when both boys looked towards her.
"Fine" she huffed, not happy in the slightest at their decision.
"So, if I'm making the meal what are you going to be doing?" she asked.
"To be honest I don't really know," explained Blaise shrugging his shoulders.
"You could show them the house and garden or the estate around the house, so you're out of my way while I make dinner"
"OK," responded both men as they couldn't come up with a better idea.
Looking at the clock it read 11:30 and Hermione sighed and said,
"I think we should go get some sleep as we have an early morning to get everything ready for your parents visit tomorrow Draco".
Agreeing they trudged back up the stairs to their room. When they got there, they slumped onto the bed and fell asleep, forgetting the sleeping arrangements that had created so much argument. Both men were on the outside with their arms wrapped securely around Hermione who was snuggled into both.
The next morning Hermione awoke first; a surprise awaited her as both men were fast asleep and she smiled slightly as she realised that without the smirks or scowls on their faces they were both very good looking. Realisation hit her full blast and she felt a funny feeling in her stomach. Quietly she crawled out of bed without waking either boy up. Walking into the bathroom she decided to have a shower, stripping down she stepped in. Standing under the fall of gushing water she finally began to relax, reaching out she grabbed the apple shampoo and squeezed it in to the palm of her hand, scrubbing it in to her hair she let out a sigh as her mind whirled back to earlier this morning when she saw how her future husbands looked with their guards down and wondered if these feelings would develop into something more meaningful.
When she had done, she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off, got dressed and went down stairs.
She wrote a quick note saying she was going to buy food for tonight and walked out of the door. She strolled slowly down the street to the little supermarket Harry had told her about and speculated about how tonight would turn out.
Stepping inside the super market she headed to the fruit and veg aisle grabbing food from cooking apples to spaghetti. Going up and down the aisles collecting different things even buying items like shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant and cooking essentials. When she had finished she headed towards this little row were too black boxes one either side stood and tentatively walked through them. She heard a low buzzing noise and when she had passed the boxes the price appeared on a screen in front of her. Seeing a slot in the screen she guessed it was for money and after placing the money into the slots, her shopping disappeared and on the sign it said they had been transported to the house.
On the road back to the house she waved to Luna walking in the opposite direction. When she arrived home she saw that Draco was in the kitchen preparing breakfast and Blaise was watching the cartoons that he had confessed a fascination with.
"Blaise which cartoon are you watching now?" she chuckled as she watched the look of pure glee appear in his eyes.
"I'm not quite sure but it's good. It's about this rabbit called Bugs and he is with this black duck. I always thought ducks were yellow but anyway. The duck is called daffy and they're arguing whether its Duck season or Rabbit season... oh it's Elmer season! What type of season is an Elmer season?" Hermione couldn't help but smile at how adorable he looked when he was confused or excited.
"Blaise the programme you're watching is Loony Tunes. It has all sorts of characters; some of the more popular ones are Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Pie, Sylvester the Cat, and Elmer Fudd,"she told him smiling.
"What other characters are there?" he asked her; Hermione's smiled increased as she realised how much he was interested in this.
"Well there is the Tazmanian Devil or Taz for short; you have Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner. These are the more well-known ones, however there are about a hundred over all. You can get all these on DVDs," she now realised the perfect present to give Blaise for Christmas she thought it was strange how she was going to give a 16 year old male, a box set of cartoons you'd give a young child.
"If there are more characters that means there is more episodes?" like an excited child he put two and two together. Grinning at him, she told him that she was going to the kitchen. She didn't' get a reply as he was too fixated in his programme.
"Would you like some breakfast Hermione?" taking the last slice of toast out of the toaster, he held up the bread bag looking towards her.
"No thank you Draco, I think I'll just have some fruit and prepare the vegetables and fruit for this evenings meal," she told him smiling kindly. She was beginning to realise she was doing an awful lot of smiling today.
"Well, I told my dad I'd meet them at 7 at the apparition point outside," said Draco.
"OK. Thanks Draco," he nodded his head and took the toast into the living room where Blaise was still watching Looney Tunes. Hermione heard Draco ask rather loudly what he was watching, and Blaise repeated part of her long explanation to Looney Tunes.
She took her time peeling the vegetables and apples, her mind drifted to what Remus had told her about the Malfoy and Zabini fertility history. She was slightly worried about them not being able to conceive children, and more pressing, if they could not conceive then she would be stuck with them forever and have no child of her own. Being an only child she knew she wanted a large family so they would never be lonely like she was. Sighing she chopped the bacon in to small pieces ready to put in the pan. Once she had finished preparing the food she glanced at the clock and she realised she had been doing the food for three hours. Her stomach rumbled she forgot all about having her fruit that she said she would eat, as it was 12.30 she decided against the fruit, stepping into the living room she saw the boys watching a different cartoon, now they had on Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse, Blaise was watching in delight whereas Draco looked like he was suffering a painful death.
"It's lunch time, what shall we have?" Hermione asked them, she almost burst out laughing when she saw Blaise jump out of his seat rush to the door before turning back and grabbing the remote before Draco could change the channel. He raced towards the freezer and rummaged through it, a few seconds later his head popped out with a bag of chips and some chicken nuggets.
"You are such a child," she laughed.
"How?" he asked her confused.
"The way you act and the food you chose to eat… watching children's programmes," she wasn't taking the mick she was being honest in a humorous kind of way.
Taking it in stride he said, "Cheers," and winked at her as she softly giggled.
Six hours later Draco went to collect his mum and dad. While Hermione started cooking dinner with help from Blaise as he waited for Draco to return. Hermione had never seen Blaise cook, but she quickly realised that he was a wiz in the kitchen, smirking to herself she knew who would be doing the cooking once they were married.
Striding down the corridor to the doors Draco began to think how this could turn out. As he neared the gates he spied the elegant and stately forms of the two people he held as dear as Blaise and Hermione. It was odd to think of it that way he mused. They were dressed in only the finest robes and clothing as always but since the fall of the Dark Lord they were less reserved on the whole as a family. Walking towards them he was swept up in a hug by his mum who had walked closer to him.
Smiling Draco said wryly, "You could have given us more time to prepare. You had my bride to be in fits."
Narcissa smiled in a sly way and covered her mouth but her eyes belied mischief. Draco sighed, "Just be nice, please. She's really nervous and has gone to a huge lengths tonight for it to go well so if it's not nice just keep it to yourself and don't be cruel and embarrassing." Looking directly at his father at the last comment.
Taking his mother's arm he escorted them into the castle to the new residential wing. Walking down the road to the house Draco observed his parents looking around at everything. He opened the gate when he reached the house and heard a gasp from his mother as she saw the house for the first time. Smiling smugly at his parents he noticed the look of surprise on their faces, from surprise to cheeky his expression changed as his parents scowled at him. Lucius said, "You did not tell us you were well off."
Draco smirked, "Well, Hermione is the brightest witch of our age closely followed by myself and our third, Blaise. We earn our money from our academic performance," Deepening the smirk he altered his voice a shade deeper and did a spot on impression of his father raising an eyebrow as his mother as he said, "This is to be expected." They couldn't help but laugh as well.
Chuckling to himself he walked up the path to the front door. Opening the door, he was gifted with the aromatic scent of warm food wafting up his nostrils. With a grin on his face he yelled,
"Honey I'm home".
"Good to know, but be quiet I'm trying to work out how long the pie has been in the oven!" Blaise walked out of the kitchen chuckling.
"I wouldn't go in that kitchen if I were you. She is like a House Elf with OCD!" Blaise warned them directing them away from the kitchen.
Narcissa, duly impressed with their home took in her surroundings and was impressed to see how tidy it was. She knew neither Draco nor Blaise had a clean bone in their body with the exception of meticulous personal hygiene. That left two option: either Hermione cleaned the house on her own or she managed to get the boys to help.
As she and her husband continued their perusal of the home Mrs. Malfoy leaned on her husband's arm and observed, "Hermione will make a wonderful daughter in-law. Our boys live properly and even cleanly. I'm in astonishment."
"Indeed" he muttered back just as quietly.
"Aha! Done!" they heard her say in the kitchen.
"Come on we'll show you around she can become quite deadly when she is in a stressful situation, you don't even want to imagine what she was like when the OWLS were under-way. This poor third year had been a little too loud in the library and he hasn't set foot in there since. That is, once he had a foot again," said Blaise quietly but not quite quietly enough as Hermione had heard and responded loudly,
"I heard that Zabini! He had feet. I couldn't help it they were kangaroo feet." Draco laughed as Blaise's eyes widened as he stood next to Lucius who was the furthest away from the kitchen door.
Draco continued to chuckle as he said, "Let's go and show you around the house,"
25 minutes later they had finished the complete tour and were now talking on the sofa then they heard Hermione shout
"Dinner!"
They stood up and walking in to the dining room they were shocked to see the dining room arrange in keeping with perfect pureblood standards. They were surprised to see the amount of effort and compromise that Hermione had put into such a simple gesture. It was a nod to their history from such a one who had no reason to respect their customs whatsoever. This was not lost on them.
Sitting down they all tucked in and enjoyed the meal Hermione and Blaise had cooked. The conversation was easy for the most part and Hermione played gracious host while the Malfoys played doting future in-laws. Later on they were all sat in the living room with Draco, Blaise and Lucius talking about Quidditch and Hermione and Narcissa talking about marriage and future children.
"So my dear have you got any names in mind for the future Malfoy?" The more Narcissa spoke to Hermione the more the elder woman enjoyed the company.
"I have a few. I'd love to name a girl either, Alexis or Natalie and for a boy the name Adrian and James have stuck out from the start," she told the beautiful woman beside her.
"They are beautiful names my dear girl, I had always liked Alexander and Morgana, Lucius chose the name Draco; we both agreed when I fell pregnant he would name the males and I would name the females. But unfortunately we only ever had Draco. I would have loved a daughter," Hermione didn't dare question why she didn't have more children, even though she was curious to know more about the fertility of the Malfoy family.
Looking at the clock on the wall Lucius stood.
"It's time to leave my darling, we have graced them with our presence for long enough," he said extending a hand towards Narcissa. "Thank you for a lovely dinner Miss Granger, we must have a catch up in the future," he said silkily nodding his head courteously, Hermione smiled up at him silently agreeing but inside her stomach tied itself in a knot.
As the elder Malfoy's disappeared down the road Hermione let a sigh out of relief and said, "I think that went well. Yes, that went splendidly. So much better than I thought it would. We will write them a nice note for the housewarming gift."
Blaise and Draco smirked down at the brunette as she prattled on and Draco interrupted the stream of commentary, "Time for bed?" He covered up a yawn.
Hermione reluctantly agreed to delay the play by play of the evening and the two others nodded their heads and the trio climbed up the stairs to bed. The infamous sleeping arrangement was forgotten once again.
So Mr and Mrs Malfoy have been and so far everythings gone well! Thank you J. once again.