Chapter Ten-
To the shock of both of the boys, Hermione wasn't in sight as they walked in. They shared a glance, ever-curious. She couldn't possibly be hiding…could she? She was here, wasn't she?
"She's probably buried under a stack of books somewhere." Blaise said, snickering.
"Or looking for the most obscure book she can find." Draco added, grinning.
"Or, she could be waiting for two bloody prats to move out of her way."
Both boys swung around to see a girl with ink black hair and indigo eyes glaring at them, hands on her hips. She was a bit taller than Granger and quite a bit more filled out, but that indignant glare could only belong to one girl.
"Granger?" The boys said at once.
"Zabini. Malfoy." She nodded levelly at each boy before pushing through them and heading back towards her table. She had secured the table just to the right of the steps leading up to the second floor of the library.
As she sat, however, the two boys appeared in front of her.
"That's it, Granger?" Zabini asked, folding his arms and shaking his head. "What a pitiful greeting for your favourite brother."
"You aren't my favourite brother." She shot back at once.
The two boys shared a glance at that. Severus had said she'd lost her parents—did she have adopted siblings?
"I thought Blaise was your only brother?" Draco asked, cautious because his curiosity did not mean he wanted a crying girl on his hands. The answer wasn't worth that much.
"Technically, Zabini is my only brother." Hermione admitted, flipping through the book in front of her lazily. It was better than staring dumbly at the two of them, to her mind at least. "Though Severus did say that I should consider you as a brother too. But I've always rather thought of Harry and Ron as brothers. Merlin knows I take care of them like they were my little brothers and Ron and I certainly fight enough and…" She trailed off, realizing who she was talking to. "And this is none of your business." She decided.
"Of course it's our business." Blaise said brightly, smirking. "Father's right- you have real brothers now. You can get rid of those two and get Father to put you in Slytherin and-"
"Oh, I don't think so." She said, glaring up at him. "I don't think you're funny. I'm happy in Gryffindor and I'm hapy with Ron and Harry."
"How could you be happy with the Gryffindorks?" Draco scoffed. "Sure, it was fine when you were Muggle-born, but now you can be proud of your family."
If looks could burn, Draco would have been fried to a crisp. "I am proud of my family." She hissed angrily. "And for your information, Mr. High-and-Mighty Slytherin, there are plenty of purebloods in Gryffindor. I would die before I transferred into Slytherin."
"Ease up there, now, Granger." Blaise said, glaring at Draco himself. Smooth move, idiot, he thought sourly. "We just thought you might like to transfer to your real house. If your whole family is in Slytherin, that usually means something."
"Yeah, it means I'm the only one who got out." She said grumpily. "And thank Merlin for that."
She decided she might have gone too far, as both boys glared at her. So, she quickly redirected. It always worked with Harry and Ron, so it would probably work on these two. She'd long believed that boys weren't that hard to figure out. "So, where do you two usually sit?" She asked, gesturing around the room. "I want to be sure and avoid that area."
Her plan worked, for both boys fell back to their customary smirks. "What would you say, Granger," Blaise teased. "If I told you that you were at my table?"
"I'd tell you that you're full of it." She shot back at once, smiling sweetly. "Because I know Severus would have warned me about that if I was. He knows all about you and your feeble attempts to usurp my table at Hogwarts."
"That damn table belongs to everyone!" Blaise protested, for what seemed to be the millionth time.
"No one else has a problem finding somewhere else to sit." She said hotly. "Except you two."
"Well," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "Excuse us for not bowing down to the Golden Princess." He said, bowing deeply. "All hail!"
"That's not what I meant!" She said, blushing at his teasing. "I just meant that- Oh!" She broke off, shaking her head as the two dissolved into laughter.
"Ease up, Granger, ease up." Blaise said as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "We take center stage." He said sarcastically, pointing to the table that sat in front of the stairs, though it was far enough back that at least two more tables could fit before one reached the actual stairs. "So don't worry, we'll still be able to see your friendly face every day. Maybe we'll even wave to you upon occasion."
"I wish you wouldn't." She said. "So, can you leave now? We've made nice, we've chatted; now go away and don't bother me."
"You know you missed us, Granger." Draco said, grinning cheekily. "It's fine that you don't want to admit it now, but you will in time. Maybe then we'll invite you to sit at our table. If you're lucky."
She rolled her eyes. "What a treat." She deadpanned.
"I'm glad you understand." Blaise said, before turning to leave.
**********
The two boys retreated to their customary table and were glad to see that they could view Granger perfectly from where she was seated.
"Well, I think that went well." Blaise said as they sat. They had both brought some of their homework to do, but talking was always a better pastime, especially when they had something so interesting to talk about. "She didn't curse me." He said happily. Such was usually the outcome when Blaise Zabini ran into Hermione Granger in a library.
"You have low standards for conversation, Blaise, you really do." Draco laughed. "So, more importantly," he went on, "how are we going to have fun with this?"
"I don't know," Blaise mused, resting his chin on his hand as he propped his elbow on the table. "Seeing Granger in a library automatically makes me itch for a prank. But Father is obviously in one of his serious moods. If we anger him, we'll spend all summer paying for our mistake. You know how he is about family."
"Or worse than that." Draco added sadly. "He might ship us back. You'd have to go spend the summer in Italy with your idiot cousins and I'd have to go back to the Ice Queen. Sev can only take so much- you know he doesn't know anything about kids. Now he has three of them."
Blaise snorted. "This has got to be like his own personal form of hell. He probably has nightmares about us coming to visit."
The very thought made Draco laugh. "Probably." He agreed. "Just like most of the time, he probably isn't downstairs brewing. He's just staring at the wall, wondering how in Merlin's name he acquired three children."
The two snickered about that for several minutes, the vision funny even if they knew that Severus was more than likely deep into brewing. The man seemed to brew more than he slept. Not even children could pull him from his love. And Merlin knows, the students of Hogwarts made Potions hell each and every year.
"So," Draco said after a few minutes. "How do you think this is going to change things? You having a sister?"
None of their friends at school had sisters. Adrian Pucey, the eldest of their bunch, had a younger brother who would be starting school in about three years, and Terrence Higgs had two older brothers that had long since graduated, but no one else had a sibling even close to them, let alone a sister.
"You've got to protect a sister." Blaise mused. "I mean, Merlin, I have to make sure none of the guys get close to her. I don't want them shagging my sister and then bragging about it! And you know the Slytherins will be all over her once they find out her true identity. Father's child? With mother's looks? She's like the perfect girl."
Draco snorted. "Yeah. Too bad about the personality though."
"No, Drake." Blaise smacked his friend, frowning. "You have to think of her as your sister too. We're brothers in this. I'm serious." As Blaise thought about it, the situation seemed to get worse and worse. "They'll be all over her. The Ravenclaws too- like Terry Boot. You know how the Boot's are- they're always interested in finding the smartest girl they can. If that git finds out she's pureblood, he'll start pursuing her. And you know Boot's don't always take no for an answer."
In fact, Terry's great-great-grandmother had joined the family in such a fashion, as back then, the medieval rape law requiring a man to marry the woman he tarnished was still in effect.
"Yeah, but this is Hermione Granger we're talking about." Draco protested. "I mean, sure, she was with Krum this year, but Granger doesn't care about boys. And besides, you have Potty and Weaselbee to do all your work for you. Truthfully, I think they're both a little interested in her."
"Well, I am definitely not letting my sister marry a Gryffindor!" Blaise protested. "It's bad enough that she's going to date. I won't let her ruin her life that way."
Draco could see his friend was getting worked up, which wouldn't be good, though it was amusing. Blaise was so often on his own, he could run a whole idea through in his head and Draco knew he was only getting pieces of the plan Blaise was undoubtedly already concocting. Poor Granger, she wouldn't even know what hit her.
"C'mon Blaise, let's get some of this done." Draco said, shaking his friend roughly. "You can scheme later- I want to go flying."
Unfortunately, their brooms had been confiscated and would remain as such until their homework was completely finished and was approved by Severus.
"I want to fly to." Blaise said, coming out of his agitation enough to pout.
"Well then, get to work!"
******************
And thus, the first week passed in silence. Severus should have known better, but he allowed himself to be relieved when no complaints were brought to his attention. Furthermore, he decided that since the three were living in relative peace, he should encourage them to act as proper siblings.
Therefore, the next week, while at dinner one night, before Hermione could do her usual dash back to the library after pudding, he spoke up. "Children," he said. "I know I haven't been around to see the three of you as often as I should and we are therefore going to start spending a few hours every night talking. I want you to get to know each other and become friends. So, after dinner, we shall retire to my den and talk."
As Severus often did this when his guilt got to him, Draco and Blaise merely nodded. The meetings were sometimes annoying, but generally interesting as they could always convince him to tell them a funny story about Lucius or Capricia.
Hermione, on the other hand, was not as happy. Frankly, she didn't want to get to know either boy better. But, she did want to learn a little more about Severus and even about her mother, though she wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of seeing her mother again.
"I suppose that would be acceptable." She finally said, when Severus turned to her for an answer.
And thus had begun their meetings. Severus knew Hermione wouldn't be open with them immediately, but eventually he did get some more answers from her than usual.
Unfortunately, as time went on, so too did the boys' desire for pranks. Their darling 'sister' was still regularly ignoring them and was simply begging for a prank. Finally, the thought of their punishments grew less tempering for the two.
A month after the boys had showed up, Severus's peaceful cup of tea before hunting his children down for breakfast (which they all quite regularly skipped, much to his displeasure) was interrupted as Hermione's furious rant aimed at her brothers filtered down to Severus's bedroom on the first floor.
"You arrogant bastards! How could you? I hate you- I hate you both! I'll always hate you!"
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Hey guys! A bit of a cliff-hanger here, I'd love to hear what you guys think they did to Hermione. I think I have an idea of what I want to write, but if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!