Okay I hope this will be a quick author's note before I continue on with chapter six. I read the reviews you so kindly wrote for me, I was actually amazed at the rapid responses. But I have a few things in answer to some of the points made. Draco not wanting to mark Daphne, someone spotted that and it will be explained later, I have a reason behind this. So why he wants to mark Hermione will come up so please just bear with me. It wouldn't be a good story if I gave you all the answers in the first few chapters.
The Sirius still a bully comment… Okay I kind of see where you are coming from... kind of. People say things in anger, make threats that will never come true. Imagine that your Mother, whom you have despised in one fell swoop ruined your only child's future after taking away their existence from you so even looking at them you didn't know they were yours. I think he's allowed to be angry in that moment. As well as angry that his only daughter was promised to the son of a man whom he despises. He is angry at Narcissa for not standing up to Bella and protecting her when he could not, but honestly to me that anger reeked more of self-loathing that he didn't protect Hermione than at anyone else.
Also I am kind of amused that everyone has taken to trying to predict how Harry and Ron will react, please keep guessing and reviewing I love to hear from you all.
Chapter Six.
Narcissa looked at her son as he sat across her in the borrowed former office of Severus Snape and sighed. She had arrived late Monday evening and demanded to see her son. When Professor Slughorn had tried to protest she reminded him that as a Governess of this school not only could he not refuse her but should he dear try she would see him teaching in the America's before the year is out and a more qualified Potion's master in his place. She had glared at him when he had tried to stay, offering to send an application on his behalf for him to teach the girls of Salem's witches Academy if he did not hurry along and leave.
To say that she still despised the wretched little man from her school days was an understatement. He was just as bad as Dumbledore, collecting children like chocolate frog cards to further his own cause. "Draco my darling, you need to stop worrying so much, do you really think I would allow Sirius to do anything to you that would harm you. The letter simply asks if you would be willing to meet with him and Remus. Remus is a good man, they want to know your wolf and can you blame them? Hermione may be a very talented witch but she is Sirius' only child. When you have children you will understand all the fear that comes with that."
She had been sat perfectly poised upon a hardback chair having insisted Draco take the cushioned one. But now she went to her knees before him, cupping his chin and kissing his cheek. "If he feels even a fraction of love for that girl as I do you, then I understand his anger, but darling you are not the focus of that anger, I know my cousin and he has always needed to play the hero and that he can't now must be eating him alive. His anger is like a hot wide, it will take the breath from you, but in the end wind is not enough to scold and burn.
"You, my darling boy, I would give everything I am and that I have to keep safe. I could not save you from that disgusting brand upon your flesh and I was not able to stop Fenrir from harming you, but as you are cursed so am I. They wanted to kill you and I fought Fenrir from you, and I too am bound by the moon. I swore after the nine hellish months of bleeding and pain as I carried you and the nineteen hours of agony that I spent labouring to bring you into this world that nothing, not my family, my vanity, my marriage or my pride would matter more to me that you do. You, Draco, my fierce little dragon are my whole world, my greatest joy and what I love more than anything else in this world."
Upon seeing the tears that threatened to spill from his grey eyes she pulled him into her arms, unable to bear seeing his pain. She held him as he shook in her arms and breathed away the tears that he refused to let fall. Narcissa having lost so many other children before she had Draco could understand Sirius' fears when it came to his daughter, she knew the agony only too well of losing a child, but in her mind that did not mean he could threaten her child. Narcissa had learned to control the infamous Black rage as a child, but it seemed her cousin planned on embracing it when it came to his daughter and she could not fault him for it, but she would not let anyone harm her son and not pay dearly for it.
Draco held her hand, squeezing her right with his left, his thumb stroking the defensive scars she had from when she fought Fenrir off of her son. Draco had thought he would die that night, he knew it was to be his fate, savaged to death as he had so feared as a child, wandless and wounded after days under the Cruciatus curse he had given up all hope. "I am not afraid of Black" he murmured raising his head finally to meet his mother's gaze.
"At least not in the way you mean. Hermione and I have been on opposite sides for years, and for so long I thought her beneath me. I bought into Father's beliefs that muggleborn's were thieves who had stolen magic to enter our world, but nothing added up. It took me years to shake off what he had taught me and by them I was already branded and doomed to kill a man." He snorted in disgust. "My father, the Great Lucius Malfoy, errand boy for a half-blood with delusions of grandeur. A madman and a coward who hid behind an army and turned himself into a disgusting thing to try and cheat death. I know you love Father, but he is so not worthy of you. If you stayed with him because of me then I am an even worse son that I ever thought I was."
Narcissa laughed, she could not help it, kissing her son before moving to the chair beside him, still holding his hand. "My darling boy, you have never been a bad son, a challenge yes, but never bad. You honour your family even when it acts in less than honourable manners. You fought to save your friends, and I know you did not save them all, but sometimes stupidity will defeat heroism. Suicide by fiedfyre is a nasty way to go." She cast a charm heating the tea that had gone cold before pouring cups for herself and her son.
"Now, I know the wedding is arranged, my aunt has not lost her touch, although I imagine if Hermione is as stubborn as you say she may choose to change a great many things that are planned. I certainly can't see her going through with blood magic to ensure fertility, so you will be saved from that little horror. In fact I cannot help but wonder whether Walburga knew that child at all, considering what she has in store for her, or if this marriage is meant to be a punishment for Sirius for never bending to his mother's will." She was musing allowed but could not help the smile that crossed her face.
"Come now, Draco, you did not think Walburga did anything that might ever benefit someone else. My aunt is famous throughout the magical world for her vindictiveness. She knew the girl was talented and bright and chooses to marry her off instead of encouraging her genius? No, she never quite forgave Dorea for marrying a Gryffindor and having a career. She said it was beneath a Black lady to ever do such a thing, this is her way of trying to ensure that Hermione does not follow that example. You my dear, as her husband would hold all the cards if you so choose, you could ensure she never saw any of her male friends again and restrict her life to her children and you, as is expected of a woman of the sacred twenty-eight."
She smiled wickedly, and it lit up her whole face, showing her true beauty not the icy perfection she wore in public like a mask. "If you have any sense you will encourage her to work, let her chose causes and donate heavily to them, she's a Black, and therefore is immune to being bought, if you want her loyalty you will have to give her yours. A wedding token is expected, as well as an engagement ring, no rubies or emeralds, as that would be brash and cliché. Not diamonds either, that suggests you are trying too hard. I think you should go with sapphires for the engagement ring, they are her birthstone, and will bring out the blue in her grey eyes." She looked at him pointedly as though he should be taking notes and he just smirked.
"Mother you have taught me the intricacies of traversing polite social situations since I could talk, I think I can remember sapphires over rubies and emeralds, but not in gold or silver but in Platinum, a rarer metal that accepts magic, one that can be imbued with protective charms for her safety. She won't like getting wedding tokens either, even if they are expected she will see it as me trying to buy her. I swear father could not have chosen me a more difficult bride if he tried."
"He could have dear, you forget the Parkinson's have wanted you for their little Pansy for years. Terribly brash family, how she made it into Slytherin is beyond me, she's got the ego of a Gryffindor that one with none of the redeeming features. I dare say she will marry a Weasley and Molly will likely despair of her shallow ways as much as her Mother does. We won't even mention the Bolstrode fiasco of your second year, she truly was a wretched little girl, she reminds me of Walburga, and that woman still stars in my nightmares from childhood. Visiting her and Orion was a punishment, I have no idea how Sirius and Regulus both turned out so sane, as it was none of their parents doing."
Draco smirked at her for the first time in days and Narcissa's heart warmed, a flood of affection washing over her as she saw her son peak through the fear he has been wearing like a cloak since she arrived. "As for your father, if he wants our marriage to continue, and he does, he has been ordered to be on his best behaviour or to hold his tongue. I will not have his prejudices endangering you again. Now if she will try and refuse gifts from you, I may have a way around that but you will need to tell me more about this girl, perhaps have her meet me for afternoon tea so I can get to know the woman who will one day be mother to my future grandchildren. Plural Draco, I want more than one to spoil rotten, preferably three but I will settle for two. Not just boys either, I want a girl to spoil rotten too." She winked at him as he gaped, smiling coyly. "I am a Slytherin dear, never forget that we as a house are far cleverer than Ravenclaws and less inclined to brag than Gryffindors. Now, tell me everything you know and all the rumours you have heard so I can begin to gage the worthiness of my future daughter in law."