So I hope you all liked the last chapter. This chapter should be interesting. It is totally my co-writer's idea for this chapter and I think it should work. We're back to Draco and Hermione so you can see what is happening with them at the moment. It is the day after Harry and Ginny's wedding but they don't know about it.
Chapter 8: Meet the parents
Draco & Hermione
"Hermione?" Draco asked.
Hermione looked up from her breakfast. "What is it dear?" she asked. She had really grown to love Draco over their fifteen months together. She missed Harry and Ron and Ginny but she missed all of them in the same way. Like brothers and sisters. Missing Ron the same way as the others helped Hermione realise that she was meant to be with Draco.
"I was thinking that you should meet my mother," Draco said, pulling Hermione back into the present.
"Y-You're mother?" Hermione exclaimed thinking she hadn't heard him correctly. Narcissa Malfoy hated muggle borns even more than her husband did and her son used to.
Draco nodded. "Don't be so worried. She'll love you. She loves anyone that I love."
"What about your dad?" Hermione asked nervously.
Draco shook his head. "He's in Azkaban. Did you not know?"
Hermione did know that. She had forgotten that she, Harry and Ron had campaigned to send Lucius Malfoy to Azkaban after the battle at Hogwarts.
"But-" Hermione said. She was stalling for time. She was very worried about meeting Draco's mum. "Won't your mum be surprised that you're with a...Well someone like me?"
Draco sighed and pulled Hermione towards him. "Firstly, she probably will be surprised that I've chosen you and secondly, there is nothing wrong with your blood history and thirdly, 'Someone like you' is a wonderful, kind witch."
Hermione smiled. She believed Draco but she decided that it would be best if she tried her hardest to get Narcissa to like her. And that would start with how she looked.
"We can go and see your mother," Hermione started but Draco interrupted her.
"Thank you. She'll love you. I was thinking we should go for lunch."
Hermione sighed. That meant she would have to plan out what she was going to do so that she had time for everything.
"That's fine. I'm going to make myself more presentable so that she can't say I don't make an effort and she can see that I can be respectable and I'm not just a mudblood," Hermione said sneering on 'mudblood'.
Draco smiled and pulled her even closer to him. He lifted her face to his and kissed her lightly before releasing her. "Go and do what you want but just don't spoil your beautiful face," he said after her.
Hermione laughed to herself as she went into the bedroom. She looked in the mirror to work out a plan of attack. Hair first, she decided thinking that that would take the longest.
After several long battles with her hair involving a lot of multicoloured sparks, Hermione looked in the mirror again. Instead of her hair being a mess of curls everywhere, she now had her hair in a satisfying style. It was straight but there were sections that had been loosely curled and twisted into light ringlets at intervals around her head.
Make-up next, she thought. That took a lot of deliberating. Should she put foundation on or not? Should she try and make it look natural? How much was too much? Eventually, she decided on very light foundation, no blush, creamy brown eye shadow and lip gloss. If in doubt, go with natural, Hermione thought looking at herself.
Hermione sighed. Clothes next. She didn't think she would have anything in her wardrobe that was suitable to wear to meet Narcissa Malfoy. She could transfigure something but that would be cheating. She was meant to be proving that she was worthy of the Malfoys as she was, not that she could use magic to make herself worthy.
"We have to go now, Hermione," Draco called up the stairs.
"Okay," Hermione said back. She sounded calm but she was shaking inside. She had one final look in the mirror and she was quite pleased with what she saw. She was wearing long sleeved top that was quite a deep purple and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. She was wearing a pair of black heels that she really wanted to take off already. She didn't want to think about wearing them all day. They were higher than all of her own heels and she thought she must have ended up with a pair of Ginny's somehow. Ginny liked heels.
"Come on, Hermione. You don't want to be late do you?" Draco asked.
"No," Hermione said, too high to still sound calm. She grabbed a little black bag and stuffed things in it as fast as she could before hurrying down the stairs.
She stood still at the bottom and waited for Draco to say something. He looked her up and down, thought for a moment, and then looked again.
"Nice," he eventually said.
Hermione gave him a look to say 'Is that all you can say?'
Draco smiled and continued with his assessment of her. "I love the hair. You should do that more often. I like the outfit but aren't those heels a bit high for your liking?"
Hermione was pleased that he liked it and even more pleased that he knew she didn't like the shoes. "I think they're Ginny's," she said.
"Ah," Draco said as if it made sense. He was wondering why Hermione had Ginny's shoes and why Hermione was wearing them if she didn't like them and she clearly didn't want to very much.
"Aren't we going?" Hermione asked, having much more confidence now that Draco had deemed her fit for meeting his mother. Not in so many words but Hermione knew that he was telling her that his mum would like it too.
"Yes," Draco said. "Hold my arm so you don't get lost."
Hermione obliged and soon she felt that familiar feeling of being pulled apart but pushed together at the same time while spinning uncontrollably.
They landed outside the door of an extremely large house.
"Welcome to Malfoy Manor," Draco said.
"It's bigger than I thought it would be," Hermione said. "You're richer than you let show. And you went on to me and Ron about being rich a lot."
Draco ducked his head and blushed slightly. He knew that he used to bully Ron and Hermione about how rich he was and that he was from a pure blood family but no one, not even Crabbe and Goyle, had known how much money the Malfoys really had.
"Come on," Draco said taking Hermione's hand and leading her towards the huge oak doors.
Draco knocked. "Stay out of sight for now," He told Hermione. Hermione thought this was a very good idea so she stood behind one of the pillars that she had somehow not noticed from the gate, and looked round the side.
The door opened to reveal a house elf that looked in bad condition. Hermione let out a gasp but covered her mouth quickly. No one seemed to have heard her.
"Mistress! Mistress!" the house elf yelled into the house. "It's Mater Draco! Mistress come quick it's Master Draco! Master Draco come to visit us finally!" The elf continued to shriek some nonsense about Draco visiting until Narcissa Malfoy appeared at the door.
"Whatever is it that means you need to shriek at me like that?" she asked.
The house elf said nothing. It must have lost its voice from all the yelling. It just pointed at Draco and retreated into the house to do some chore or other.
Narcissa looked and saw her son standing on the doorstep. "Oh Draco," she whispered. "It's really you." She gathered her son into a bone crushing hug.
Draco was embarrasses at his mum's affection. She had never done something like that before. He thought she must just have been missing her husband.
"Oh do come in at once, Draco," she said, smoothing the front of her dress. She seemed as embarrassed as Draco at her outburst.
"I brought someone for you to meet," Draco said motioning for Hermione to come out.
"Oh how lovely," Narcissa said looking at Hermione. "Come here dear. What were you doing over there?" Hermione went up to Narcissa. She had hair the same colour as Draco and Lucius and was the same height as Hermione with Ginny's heels on.
Narcissa bustled Draco and Hermione into the house. "We'll be having two more people for lunch," she said to a house elf that was invisible to Hermione.
"She didn't recognise me, did she?" Hermione asked Draco when Narcissa wasn't looking.
"I don't think so," Draco replied. "She certainly didn't seem to."
Narcissa led them into a fancy looking dining room. "You're just in time for lunch," she said motioning for them to sit down. "The house elves will bring it. We can talk until then and I can find out who this lucky girl is," Narcissa said looking at Hermione who was fidgeting with her sleeve.
"Mum, this is," Draco started looking at Hermione. She nodded for him to go on and to give him encouragement. "This is Hermione Granger."
Narcissa looked at Hermione. "I've heard that name before..." Narcissa said. "Weren't you that lovely girl that was after my Draco since first year? No that was Pansy," Narcissa said, thinking to herself.
Suddenly her face lit up and then changed to an expression of horror. Hermione and Draco braced themselves. Narcissa turned on Draco. "How could you bring that... That... That Thing into my house? How could you even...?" Narcissa couldn't go on.
"I love her," Draco tried to explain but Narcissa looked away, even more disgusted.
Suddenly she came up with an idea. "I'll be right back," she said. She hurried upstairs and went to her owl before changing her mind and going for the express bird. She wrote a letter to her sister.
Bella. You won't believe who Draco just brought home. Hermione Granger! I was about to get them to leave but I realised that she is a link to Potter. If I'm nice to her and we get closer to each other we could kidnap her in a couple of months and then Potter will come to rescue her. What do you think? Narcissa.
"Get a reply quickly," Narcissa told the bird. It was back in no time with a new note. Narcissa untied it and put the bird back in its cage. She unfolded the note.
Cissy. How could Draco do that to you? It's despicable. Yes, of course, get to know her and then kidnap her. Getting Potter will be a fine reward. Bellatrix.
Narcissa nodded to herself and went back down to see her guests. She sat down where she had been sitting before and turned to Hermione.
"I'm so sorry Hermione, dear. I was just shocked. Anyone Draco loves, I will accept with open arms. Shall we go eat?"
Hermione and Draco hadn't noticed that food had appeared on the table but now that Narcissa had commented on it, they couldn't help but notice it.
"Dig in," Narcissa said, taking some food for herself.
The three had a happy lunch and chatted about not much in particular until Draco and Hermione had to go home.
"I'll invite you back over for lunch in a couple of days," Narcissa said hugging Hermione and Draco. Once they had left she thought over her plan. Yes, she would call the death eaters to get Hermione in a few months when Draco would have no reason to believe it was his dear mother that had anything to do with it.
Three days later Hermione and Draco got a letter inviting to lunch at the Malfoy Manor that very day. Hermione went upstairs immediately to get ready. She thought that the make-up and hair had worked perfectly so she stuck with them. She just had to sort out what she was going to wear. She decided that since she was still trying to get Narcissa to like her she should wear something similar to what she wore before. Since she had nothing similar in the top she turned it red and put on the same jeans as before. She then, reluctantly, slipped her feet into Ginny's shoes.
"Let's go," Hermione said when she got down the stairs. Draco checked that he wasn't to bring anything and then held his arm out for Hermione. She held it and was sucked into the twirling world that most wizards hated.
Draco knocked on the door and Narcissa was there almost instantly. She made a huge fuss of saying hello and then ushered them into a small living room.
"So how did you two end up together?" she asked.
"Well," Hermione started, wondering what exactly she should tell Narcissa. "My parents were very stressed and I thought they needed a holiday but they were refusing to go so I bewitched them into thinking they were other people and they went to Australia. When I was trying to find out where they were to bring them back I got a letter from someone saying that they knew something about my parents. That letter was from Draco and he told me my parents were dead. I was so upset but Draco comforted me and I realised I was meant to be with him," Hermione explained.
Narcissa turned to Draco. "How did you know they were dead?"
Draco sighed. "I heard dad talking about them. They were found and killed by some Death Eaters. I don't know who," Draco said.
Narcissa decided to leave that topic and she asked them other things for a while until Draco asked if he could talk to her in private.
"I need to go and buy something," Draco said. "I'll be back for lunch. You and Hermione can talk."
"What are you going to buy?" Narcissa asked.
"An engagement ring," Draco said. "I'm going to ask Hermione to marry me. Isn't that wonderful?"
Narcissa could see how much Draco loved this girl but she did not want her as a daughter-in-law. Not a mudblood.
"Yes it is," Narcissa said trying to put as much feeling into what she was saying as she could.
When Draco had left Narcissa went back to Hermione. "Draco had to go out for something but we should be fine on our own," she said.
After sitting for Hermione for fifteen minutes Narcissa was getting really bored. She was just wondering when Draco would be back when she decided to bring her plan forward.
"I have to go upstairs for something," Narcissa said. She might have been interrupting something Hermione was saying but she wasn't sure. She went upstairs and signalled for the Death Eaters to come. Then she went back downstairs.
Hermione continued to tell Narcissa something that she wasn't listening to. She was thinking about her surprised face for when the Death Eaters burst in.
She got to use it just then. Hermione was shocked as well but her shock turned to fear when Bellatrix grabbed her and apparated.
"Make it look realistic," Narcissa said. She watched as the Death Eaters trashed the room to make it look like there was a struggle.
They were just about to leave when Narcissa stopped them. "You have to knock me out. A tall man went over to her. She recognised him but she couldn't remember his name. She held up her hand to tell him to wait before knocking her out. "You can torture the girl all you want but don't kill her," Narcissa said, gaining questioning looks from everyone else in the room. "Draco loves her so much. I want you to hurt her to get at Potter but if you break my son's heart..." The threat was left hanging but everyone knew that what Narcissa would do to them wouldn't be good. "The girl won't die," the man in front of Narcissa said before magically knocking her out. Then the Death Eaters apparated.
Draco came back to find the house silent. He looked into the small living room that his mum and Hermione had been in and found it a mess and his mum lying on the floor. He roused her using magic and went straight up to her. "What happened to Hermione?" he demanded.
Narcissa was a good actress. She looked genuinely scared. "The Death Eaters took her," she said quietly. I don't know where they went." She looked up but Draco had already apparated home. He took the ring box out of his pocket and locked it in a drawer. He then sat trying to work out where the Death Eaters would have taken Hermione and what the best way to get her back would be.
Hope you liked it. Please review. Next chapter should hopefully be up soon.
