AN: Here's the next chapter. I quite like it, finally some insight into Draco's mood swings and clingyness. Hope you all enjoy...
Disclaimer: All recognized characters and situations belong to J. K. Rowling. I make no money from this and own nothing in the Harry Potter Universe.
The next morning Hermione woke up much earlier than Draco. She watched him sleeping peacefully, gently brushing a lock of hair from his face and traced the curve of his soft lips.
She knew the lunch meeting was going to be rough, butterflies were fluttering around in her belly just at the thought of meeting with Draco's mother and how bad things could get.
She crept out of the bed and snuck into the bathroom quietly, not wanting to wake her parents either.
She showered and put her hair up in as neat a bun as her wild locks would allow, then went back to her room to get dressed.
She quietly opened her wardrobe and took stock of the minimal amount of clothing that wasn't at Hogwarts.
She found a smart black suit jacket and skirt set her mother had bought her just before she went on the run with the boys and not had the chance to wear.
She paired it with a crisp white shirt and her black pumps, which she found rather precarious to walk in, and dressed quickly. She went back to the bathroom and put some mascara, blusher and lip-gloss on and took a deep breath.
Now for the tough part.
She went into her room and reinforced the silencing spell on her room, just in case Draco lost his temper.
She bent over the bed and placed a kiss on Draco's cheek as she gently shook his shoulder.
He grumbled and eventually opened his eyes.
"Morning" she whispered. With a shaky smile.
"Good Morning Sweetheart" Draco whispered back, as she wiped sleep from his eyes.
"What time is it?"
"Around 7:30" Hermione responded, standing back so he could her out of the bed.
"Hermione you look ravishing" he exclaimed as he took in her appearance.
"Thanks" she blushed.
"Why are you so dressed up?"
"Ill tell you once we're downstairs. Meet you in the kitchen"
Draco nodded, slightly confused and apparated up to the loft.
Hermione grabbed one of Draco's black shirts from her wardrobe and headed downstairs.
She pulled the ironing board out and began to iron the shirt without magic. She used the smooth motions and the minimal concentration it took to distract her from her nerves about lunch.
Draco found her in the kitchen a few moments later.
"Hermione will you please tell me what's going on?"
"Would you like a coffee?" she responded, avoiding the impending explosion a few moments longer.
Draco nodded and watched her moving around the kitchen, making two coffees. Once she handed him a cup he tried again, "Sweetheart, what's going on?"
"I did something. Something I don't think you'll be very pleased about and I don't want you to be angry, because I did it to help" Hermione responded quickly, causing the words to become a jumbled mess.
"What did you do?"
"I wrote to your mother, and she's agreed to meet us for lunch" Hermione finally admitted what she had done.
Draco's patented Malfoy mask immediately fell into place, "absolutely not"
"Draco, its arranged. She will be waiting for us at 1pm, at the Leaky Cauldron. We have to go"
"I said ABSOLUTELY NOT" Draco was shouting by the end.
"What the hell is going on down there?" Hermione's father yelled from upstairs.
"Nothing dad" Hermione called back. "Draco please, just come to lunch and if it doesn't work out I swear I won't get involved again.
"No. I don't want you anywhere near her. I don't care what everyone else thinks, she was just as much a death eater as my father, you're not going" Draco was adamant.
"So were you, for whatever reason you were a death eater. Draco I'm going, and you're going with me" Hermione turned back to the ironing board and continued with Draco's shirt.
…..
By lunchtime Draco was refusing to talk to or look at Hermione. He sat out on the porch swing for most of the morning and refused to get dressed.
Hermione stepped right in front of him with her hands on her hips, producing a very good impression of Mrs. Weasley, "Draco Malfoy you will get up, get dressed and come with me to Diagon Alley or so help me you will regret it"
Draco folded his arms across his chest, "I'd love to know what you're going to do about it" he raised his eyebrow, challenging her.
She bent down so she was face to face with him and smirked, "don't test me Draco" she warned.
He huffed, "fine, but don't blame me at the end of this ridiculous lunch"
Draco stood and marched into the house and upstairs to get dressed.
Hermione held out her hand when he came back but instead of taking it he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her body against his, he bent down to whisper in her ear "you're brave sweetheart, maybe too brave"
He turned on the spot and apparated them to Diagon Alley.
They landed just outside the Leaky Cauldron and entered quickly. Tom gave Hermione a big toothless grin as soon as he saw her and ushered them straight up to one of the private rooms.
"Thanks Tom" Hermione said shaking his hand and flashing a winning smile.
"Anything for you miss Granger" Tom replied bowing as low as his old creaky bones would allow, completely ignoring Draco standing next to her.
They didn't have to wait very long before Tom was showing Mrs Malfoy into the room. He stepped away as soon as he opened the door giving her a wide berth.
"Thank you Tom, could we have some drinks?" Hermione asked as Narcissa looked around the drearily decorated room, wrinkling her nose.
"Of course Miss Granger, right away" Tom scurried off.
"Draco dear, it is lovely to see you" Mrs Malfoy claimed, holding her hand out to Draco.
He automatically bent and kissed it with a cold air, "Mother"
Hermione watched on in dismay, it was no wonder Draco struggled so much with his emotions, how could his own mother not grab him and engulf him in a tight hug after six months? She wanted to take Narcissa Malfoy and shake her until she saw sense.
"Miss Granger" Mrs Malfoy nodded.
Tom returned with a jug of pumpkin juice and some glasses and bowed his way out of the room. They each sat in a rickety wooden chair around a small round table and Hermione poured them each a drink just for something to do.
Hermione took in Mrs Malfoys appearance as the older witch took a sip of her drink. She was wearing an obviously tailored green dress that pinched in on her slim waist and stopped at her knee. She had a black shawl draped across her shoulders and her hair was in a tight bun, completely opposite to Hermione's messy one, she felt completely inadequate sitting opposite her boyfriends mother.
Draco was sitting with tense shoulders next to her. He had a tight grip on her hand under the table. "How have you been mother?"
"Well Draco, thank you. My days are mainly filled with my community service and running the Manor. As you can imagine some work was needed on the building" Mrs Malfoy responded.
Draco nodded.
"Shall I order lunch?" Hermione asked, vacating her seat.
She left the uncomfortable room and went down to the main bar, ordering sandwiches and tea from Tom. She braced herself at the door back into the room and entered.
Quite clearly in her absence neither Draco nor his mother had moved or said a word.
"Oh for Merlin's sake. What on earth is the matter with you? Mrs Malfoy you haven't seen your son in six months and your sitting there like the man across from you is a complete stranger. And you Draco, this is your mother, loosen up!"
"Hermione I didn't want to come here today, what do you want me to say?" Draco growled through gritted teeth.
"Oh come on. So your mother doesn't like me, what did you expect? That isn't a good enough reason to behave like a spoilt child" Hermione bit out.
"IT ISN'T JUST THAT!" Draco shouted.
"What?"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter" Draco folded in on himself.
Hermione looked at Mrs Malfoy for help.
"Come now Draco. Spit it out, if it isn't my dislike of your relationship with Miss Granger, the what is it?" Mrs Malfoy goaded him, which just fuelled Hermione's exasperation.
Draco looked up from under his long blonde lashes at his mother with distain, "fine, you never stood up to father. You let him drag us into this world, this scenario of hate and terror. You just sat by and watched as I was forcefully indoctrinated into Voldermort's army of Death Eaters…"
"Don't say his name" his mother snapped.
"SHUT UP! You see this woman? She stands up to me. She puts me in my place. She infuriates me beyond belief, and do you know why? Because she actually CARES about me. She nags me because in the end it's going to help me. You never cared about father or me, you only cared about being Lady Malfoy. Well you can take the Malfoy name and the Malfoy fortune and you can shove it where the sun doesn't shine"
Draco stood up so quickly that his chair fell backwards and stormed out of the room.
Hermione stared after him with her mouth wide open.
"Well I can see that coming here was a waste of time" Mrs Malfoy sighed.
"You have got to be joking. Did you not just hear him?" Hermione exclaimed.
Hermione followed his path and found him just outside the pub. She grabbed his hand and apparated them back to her parents' house.
They went straight up to her room and sat on the bed.
"Draco, why didn't you tell me? You could've told me anything. Why didn't you tell me what was really bothering you all this time?" Hermione asked him.
"It's my problem" he responded stiffly.
"No. Your problems are my problems. I love you and I want to be here for you, for everything, the good and the bad" Hermione leant forward and pecked his lips.
He grabbed her head and held her there, making the kiss last longer.
When he eventually let go he looked her straight in the eye, "Marry me?"
Hermione gasped.
"I know it's soon, maybe too soon. I was going to wait until we finished school but I knew from the moment that we kissed for the first time that I was going to marry you. Please say yes, let's start an amazing life together"
Tears filled Hermione's eyes and she nodded as a huge grin spread across her face.
….
Hogwarts
They agreed to keep their engagement a secret until they finished Hogwarts. What was another two months? Although Draco insisted she wear the engagement ring he bought her before they went back to the castle.
It was a beautiful freshwater cultured Pearl and Diamond ring in a platinum setting, Hermione loved that it wasn't a big flashy diamond, but something unique, like their relationship.
Although, she had to charm it to keep it invisible during school hours, she wasn't ready for the staring and questioning to begin again just yet.
A few weeks after they got back to school, Hermione was sitting in the library studying for her exams, and had talked Draco into hanging out in the Slytherin dorm with Blaise for a change. He had had such a good day when Blaise joined them at Easter.
She had her head buried in her Transfiguration textbook when a tapping began on the window behind her. She got up and opened it quietly and quickly.
It was the same owl that had brought her the note from Mrs Malfoy during the holidays; she opened the letter and read.
Dear Miss Granger
I have given a lot of thought to our lunch meeting and what my son said.
I'm sure you believe that I am an awful mother, but that is not what I set out to be.
So I have decided, in an effort to make amends to my son, that I will do my best to accept you in his life, anyone can see that you care for him, and contrary to his belief I do love him and want the best for him.
I hope that in the future we can come to some sort of understanding.
Regards
Narcissa Malfoy
Hermione tucked the letter in her bag with a happy sigh, things were finally beginning to look up.
AN: I hope you all enjoyed it. Especially as the next chapter is the Epilogue... (Gasp) I know, I can't believe its over already but thats the way the inspiration bunny went. Reviews will get you guys there all the quicker although once I click the post button here I'm going on to write it because my fingers are already itching.. Picture of Hermione's ring is on my profile, would love to know what you all think