Chapter Thirteen; Mr and Mrs Malfoy, mudbloods and an unexpected kindness.
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked Narcissa tentatively, and a little shocked, not sure if she had heard the older woman correctly.
"Miss Granger, I want you to tell me everything that happened between you and Draco. He came home yesterday but he has been bedridden since, refusing to come down until dinner, and even then he'll sit there and only play with his food. I had to ask Peggie if she knew what happened." Narcissa spoke matter of fact, but Hermione could hear the underlying stress and worry Narcissa had for her only son.
Narcissa fixed her gaze firmly on Hermione as she spoke, "Peggie told me that you and Draco had spent some time together, and that was why he moved out of home in the first place, so that he could be with you more often without his father and myself looming over his shoulder all the time. Peggie knows he told you to leave and that he left you, but she doesn't know why. I assume you're here to fight for him, and I will help you, but I need to know the story." Hermione couldn't help but wonder if Narcissa would use Occlumency if she chose not to tell her what happened between her and Draco. Hermione decided she wasn't going to risk it.
"Well I don't fully understand why he left me. We went on a few dates and he even bought me a beautiful dress for one of them. He was a perfect gentleman, sweet and caring, and when he walked me home he always dropped me off on the doorstep, he was never imposing." Hermione was slightly alarmed to find that she was beginning to fight back tears, but she continued on, determined to finish her story and have someone understand.
"The night before he came back home to you was our first night together. He and Peggie cooked dinner together. We had a wonderful night, and when I woke up, he seemed happy. But when I came back, something had happened. He was cold to me and asked me to leave, saying that his father had found him a pureblood wife and that it would be rude for him to refuse her. He apologized for getting my hopes up, and he called me a distraction … and a mudblood." Hermione dropped her head into her hands, crying and trying to hide it from Narcissa.
Other than the sounds of Hermione's muffled sobs, it was silent for so long that Hermione started to wonder if Narcissa was waiting for her to stop crying so that she could insult her or kick her out of the mansion.
Then she heard Narcissa curse under her breath. "The bastard."
Curious, Hermione wiped her eyes and glanced up at Narcissa. The older woman was glaring into the fire, her face full of anger and frustration. Patiently Hermione waited for Narcissa to stop glaring at the fire and possibly explain who she was talking about.
Finally Narcissa turned to Hermione, her expression and her voice much kinder. "Miss Granger, do you want my son back, if he wants to be with you?" Hermione nodded eagerly, and at that Narcissa stood up quickly.
"Wait here, do not move, and I will be back. Peggie will get you anything that you require." And she strode out the room, leaving Hermione slightly confused. After a few moments she realised she was starving, so she called Peggie over.
"Peggie?" In a moment the little elf was standing in front of her. "Yes, Miss Hermione?"
"Could you get me something sweet to eat? Just a little snack." Hermione wasn't used to asking someone else to get her food for her, but she was too afraid and nervous to go against Narcissa's wishes.
"How sweet would Miss like her snack? Master Draco enjoys chocolate dipping sauce with chocolate chip biscuits, if Miss Hermione would like that?" Hermione laughed at the idea, but her tastebuds were tingling.
"Actually Peggie, that sounds nice. Just a small serving though, and some pumpkin juice, please." Peggie bowed low before disappearing with a pop.
Hermione lay back in the chair and closed her eyes, suddenly completely exhausted, wanting nothing more than to find Draco, curl up next to him and go to sleep for a few hours.
Hearing a pop Hermione opened her eyes to find Peggie in front of her again, holding a large jug of pumpkin juice in one hand and a plate of biscuits and chocolate in the other. Hermione was impressed, the jug was see-through except for the handle, which appeared to be real silver and in the shape of a snake. The plate also appeared to be silver with the biscuits upon it artfully arranged around a small silver bowl which held the smooth chocolate sauce.
As Peggie carefully placed the bowl on the table next to Hermione, she was surprised to find that Peggie had already cleared the table from the previous drinks that had been upon it, and that the Malfoy family crest was everywhere. It was on the small table cloth that covered the table, it was engraved on all the silver, and it was even stitched onto Peggie's clothes – onto the black, neat, pleated skirt and the deep green, knitted sweater.
Hermione suddenly felt guilty, she had never noticed Peggie's clothes before that moment. All that talk about Elf rights and she hadn't taken the time to know much about Peggie other than she worked for the Malfoys', she was paid and given holidays.
"Here you go, Miss Hermione." As Peggie bowed low, the door to Narcissa's room opened and snapped shut again. Hermione peered around the chair she was sitting in, to see Narcissa sweeping around the chair to sit down gracefully in it.
"Miss Granger," Narcissa began, and then her eyes landed on the plate resting on the table. Hermione watched with mild amusement as Narcissa sighed, her face full of disappointment, before she gingerly picked up a biscuit, dipped the smallest possible amount of biscuit into the chocolate dip, and popped the biscuit into her mouth. Hermione followed suit, except that she dipped half her biscuit into the dip. She immediately realized why Narcissa had only dipped a tiny amount of her biscuit into the dip – the stuff was sweet! It was delicious, but it was the sweetest chocolate Hermione had ever come across.
"Miss Granger." Narcissa tried again once she'd swallowed her biscuit, seeming almost nervous to Hermione. "Draco told me that he would indeed take you back if he could, he only left you because his father wanted him to be with a pureblood family." Hermione was shocked when Narcissa sounded violent when speaking about her husband, but she felt compelled to quietly ask the question that was bugging her.
"Mrs Malfoy, do you know what Mr Malfoy said to D-Draco to make him leave me?" She didn't like that she stumbled over Draco's name, but she was proud she actually asked the question.
Narcissa's wide eyes met Hermione's anxious ones. "No. Draco didn't tell me." Hermione dropped her gaze, hiding her disappointment by picking up another biscuit.
Suddenly a loud bang, bang, bang echoed through the room. Someone was knocking, very loudly, on the door.
"Narcissa! Are you in there?" Mr Malfoy called through the doors. Hermione's blood seemed to freeze in her veins.
Is Mrs Malfoy going to turn me in?! Hermione began to panic, but then Narcissa placed one hand gently over Hermione's.
"Wait here. I will be back. I won't let you be harmed. I promise." Hermione nodded, but she didn't relax, shrinking back against the chair as Narcissa walked over to the door and opened it to reveal her husband, who took three steps into the study and half turned to speak to his wife, although his eyes were examining the walls of her study, sounding almost bored.
"Narcissa, a Ministry official will be attending dinner tonight, he is in support of my latest campaign and may be able to help me to secure a higher ranking position in the ministry. Also, Daphne Greengrass, Draco's soon-to-be-fiancée will be attending tonight. Dinner will be promptly at seven, and I expect …" Mr Malfoy trailed off as his wandering eyes found Hermione.
"My apologies, I didn't realize you had company. Who is this?" When neither Narcissa nor Hermione responded, Mr Malfoy sighed and made his way over to stand in front of Hermione.
Hermione's terrified eyes met Lucius' suddenly cold grey eyes. He was staring down at her with anger all over his features.
If looks could kill I'd be very dead, possibly even chopped up into little pieces right now. Hermione pointed out to herself.
"What are you doing here, in my house? You filthy MUDBLOOD! How DARE YOU ENTER MY HOUSE?! I WANT YOU OUT, IMMEDIATELY!" Hermione felt more tears prick her eyes as Narcissa seemed to jerk awake. Narcissa bustled over to stand between Hermione and Mr Malfoy, her palms raised in front of Mr Malfoy in a sign of peace, speaking to him softly but stubbornly.
"Lucius, Hermione Granger is my guest. I allowed her onto our grounds after she spent hours outside our gates demanding answers. She is here under my protection, and she will be here for dinner tonight as my guest." Mr Malfoy opened his mouth to protest, but Narcissa held her hands up higher and spoke louder, over him.
"Allow me to help her clean up and she will be perfectly presentable, not only that but it will look good to your visitor if we have a muggle born friend of Draco's attending dinner." This made Lucius stop and think for a few moments.
"Fine, whatever." He eventually snapped. "But if she isn't up to standards she will be sent off immediately after dinner." And with that threat hanging in the air he stormed out of the room.
The door slammed behind him, and only then did Hermione and Narcissa both breathed a huge sigh of relief. Narcissa turned to Hermione, a small smile ghosting her lips.
"So, would you like to attend dinner with us tonight Miss Granger?" Hermione gave a shaky laugh and nodded her head.
"I would be honoured. But I'd have to go home and change." Hermione bit her lip, thinking about what she could wear. She didn't really have anything other than the dress Draco had bought for her, and she didn't really feel like wearing that in front of his parents. But Narcissa solved that problem for her.
"No need. I have plenty of old clothes that I don't fit into anymore, you can borrow one of them, I'm sure we can find something suitable that'll fit." Narcissa offered. Hermione could only smile gratefully and nod before Narcissa took her hand and lead her out of the study.
Hermione quickly got lost as Narcissa lead her out the study and through the house. They walked in silence so Hermione had absolutely no bearings at all.
"Here we are!" Narcissa finally announced, letting go of Hermione's hand and opening the simple wooden double doors. Hermione took a few steps in, but had to stop, her mouth hanging open in surprise.
"Do you like it, Miss Granger?" Narcissa laughed at Hermione's expression. They were inside a wardrobe, but it was as big as Hermione's bedroom. Three quarters of the room was filled with clothes and shoes, and the remainder of the room was a large table and mirror with jewellery and makeup boxes neatly laid out upon it.
"It's as big as my bedroom at home." Hermione stated, in awe of the wardrobe. Narcissa nodded, "It is a little ridiculous, the whole mansion's size is really, but it gives me my space, so I don't complain too much. Now, the dresses I don't wear anymore are over here." Narcissa showed Hermione where she had brightly coloured dresses hanging up in the corner. It wasn't a large hanging space, only three or four metres long Hermione guessed, but it was overflowing with dresses.
"These are my dresses from before I was married. I either grew out of them after falling pregnant or Lucius didn't like them, but my favourites I've held onto. You can wear any one that takes to your fancy. Somehow I don't think the clothes you're currently wearing would live up to my husbands standards for dinner with a ministry official." Narcissa lightly teased Hermione, but Hermione hung her head. "Maybe it'll show Draco exactly what he's done to me." Hermione mumbled miserably. Her eyes were downcast so she missed Narcissa's pained and mournful expression.
Narcissa ran her fingers along the fabric of the dresses, her eyes far away, before she shook her head and walked away, talking over her shoulder to Hermione, "Please choose a dress. For me, if not for anyone else. I'll set up a screen you can get changed behind while you choose."
Hermione turned her attention to the dresses. They're so stuffed in there that I don't want to touch them in case one rips! She sighed to herself. So … which one has nice colours? Hermione scanned the dresses. This one.
Slowly and cautiously, with a great amount of care, Hermione extracted one of the dresses. It was a floor length piece, blood red, with gold along the edges of the sleeves, hem and neckline. Holding it up Hermione guessed that it would sit slightly off the shoulder, and would not be extremely tight on her. Turning around she walked over to Narcissa, who was just finishing up setting the screen up along a small bare patch of green painted wall.
"I like this one, Mrs Malfoy." Hermione held up the dress, and Narcissa nodded in approval.
"I'll get some products out so that we can play around with hairstyles once you're dressed. And please, call me Narcissa." Hermione nodded shyly.
"Thank you, Narcissa." Narcissa smiled kindly and turned around again as Hermione stepped behind the screen.
While she was undressing herself, Hermione's thoughts travelled to Draco. Does he really want me back? Am I being an idiot and setting myself up for more heartbreak?
Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts when she realized she wouldn't be able to tie up the dress herself. She was wrong about the dress not being tight. There was a built in corset in the bodice.
"Er, Narcissa, could you help me out please?" Hermione listened to Narcissa's footsteps as the older woman walked across the room to stand next to Hermione.
"What's wrong?" Narcissa asked, sounding worried.
"I can't tie it up, could you, please?" Hermione was looking at the floor and biting her lip out of embarrassment while holding the dress up. She heard Narcissa laugh quietly before beginning to tie the dress up.
"I always had trouble getting this one done up, too. It's OK, Miss Granger."
"Hermione. You can call me Hermione." Hermione muttered, still extremely embarrassed, but she didn't get to see Narcissa's quickly changing expressions of surprise then joy.
It felt like forever to Hermione, but Narcissa finally finished tying the corset. "There, all finished." Hermione nodded her thanks and turned around, seeking Narcissa's approval. Which she received.
"You look beautiful, the dress suits you more than it ever suited me. Come with me, we can find some jewellery and fix your hair if you'd like?" Hermione smiled and nodded her thanks, happily following Narcissa as the older woman led her out from behind the screen and across the room to a mirror and table. The table had neat rows of black boxes covering it, there were so many that Hermione only just had enough clear space for Hermione to rest her forearms.
"Here." Hermione watched in the mirror as Narcissa waved her wand, and Hermione's hair seemed to jump alive and tied itself into an elegant knot at the nape of her neck, but leaving one long corkscrew curl to frame either side of her face.
"Wow. How did you do that, Narcissa? I've been trying for years, but I could only achieve simple hairstyles." Hermione was amazed and awed, and Narcissa giggled at her.
"One day I'll teach you how." Hermione smiled gleefully while Narcissa laughed openly at her enthusiasm.
"OK, Hermione, I'm going to get changed. You choose what jewellery you would like, you can borrow any that take your fancy. All my gold jewellery is in the boxes with a gold clasp, and all silver in boxes with a silver clasp. If you're done choosing before I get back, you can choose which shoes you'd like, they're all against that wall there." And with that Narcissa stepped away, leaving Hermione to fend for herself for a short time.