The Courtship of a War Heroine
Pairing: Hermione/Astoria
Secondary Pairings: Draco/Astoria; Harry/Ginny; Ron/Lavender; Daphne/Theo
Non-canon compliant following DH
Dinner was pleasant. Astoria took up most of Hermione's attention and to her shock, she noticed that the beautiful woman was almost…well, flirting with her. Hermione was a pretty woman and she was no stranger to being flirted with. She had to admit that Astoria was extremely pretty.
And dinner was delicious. Hermione had eaten her portion with relish and washed it down with wine that was both to her taste and excellently paired with her meal. The dessert that had followed had been wonderful.
They had wound up in a sitting room off of the main dining room. The setting was rather intimate, with low lighting and comfy chairs. Hermione was decently buzzed, making her way toward drunk. Draco had switched from wine to Firewhisky and Astoria was sipping on a glass of water. Halfway through dinner she had noticed that the dark liquid in Astoria's wine was juice, not wine and had commented on it. The Malfoys seemed reluctant to tell her but finally admitted that Astoria was pregnant, though not very far along. They hadn't even told anyone else outside of their parents due to the fact that Astoria had been a high risk pregnancy with Scorpius.
"Malfoys never have more than one son," Draco said, "we were surprised when Astoria became pregnant again."
"Greengrass women very rarely carry a second child to term," Astoria admitted, "my mother was a Rosier and they typically have more children than other Pureblood families though not as many as the Weasleys or the Prewetts."
"How interesting," Hermione had said, adding low child birthing rates to her list of reasons to eliminate the oldest of the Pureblood houses. It would have been interesting to see whether Harry would have been an only child had his parents survived.
Astoria was seated next to Hermione, closer, Hermione thought, than was strictly appropriate between acquaintances. The woman leaned over her to refill her wine glass and Hermione caught a whiff of her perfume. Astoria smelled like the sun felt, like a summer day. Hermione shifted, noting that she had become fairly aroused between her drinking, the proximity of a pretty witch, and the smell of her perfume.
"Do you know much of the old Pureblood traditions?" Draco asked as he refilled her wine glass, exchanging a look with Astoria that confused Hermione.
"Some," she admitted, "I did a lot of reading after the war to try and understand the basis of the blood purity nonsense." She wondered if either would try and contradict her.
"It stems from a lot of our traditions," Draco admitted, "though Riddle did contort them quite a bit in order to justify the oppression of Muggleborns. Traditionally, we didn't look down upon them, my parents were known to consort with them from time to time and my father had several Halfblood mistresses. There's no reason to deny that Muggleborns can give rise to powerful witches, you're only one such example, Lily Potter is a second. However, the fact that a number of them were unaware of traditions meant that it wasn't quite 'the thing' to associate with them."
"I haven't found much in regards to why Muggleborns aren't accepted as readily into Pureblood society," Hermione admitted, "perhaps you can give me more clarification?"
"Well it began with the early witch trials," Draco said, "and then after those ended and Muggleborns were permitted to enter Hogwarts, they began to…well, besmirch the honor of the Pureblood girls." Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Different times," Astoria soothed, "a girl's virginity was a valued possession, something that every properly brought up Pureblood boy knew and respected. Draco wouldn't have been inappropriate with Pansy or my sister however much he fooled around with Ravenclaw Halfbloods. And there are a number of charms that were used to reveal if a girl had kept her virginity. If she hadn't," Astoria shrugged, "marriage contracts were often broken and the girl's prospects ruined. Heaven forbid if she fell with a Halfblood bastard."
"A lot of times, it wasn't that the Muggleborn was being an ass, just that he wasn't aware of the customs," Draco added, "it led to a lot of resentment and Purebloods began teaching their daughters that Muggleborn men were scum. It was during that time that the term 'mudblood' began to surface as a derogatory term."
"How interesting," Hermione noted. It made a twisted sort of sense.
"Of course, we didn't consider them lower class. Merely uneducated and ignorant. Often, Muggleborns were welcomed into old Pureblood families when they were young and they were taught the culture. A number of the so-called "Sacred Twenty-Eight" and in particular the Weasleys, Abbotts, and Prewetts have Muggleborn witches and wizards in their line that they raised into the Wizarding culture," Astoria continued.
"Then, when Grindelwald and then Riddle came into power, it became dangerous to associate with Muggleborns so they were regulated to second and then third class citizens," Draco added, "after a while the stigma stuck. Only a few families stuck to their guns and insisted that Muggleborns were just as much wizards as Purebloods, demonstrating that many times, interbreeding strengthened the lines. Weasleys often have a number of children because their women were strengthened by new blood. Of course most of the recent generations stuck to Purebloods."
"So the problem is that Muggleborns aren't aware of the customs?" Hermione asked, "that's the root of it, anyhow?"
"Right. It's very hard to properly court a Muggleborn witch because she hasn't the faintest idea that small, personal gifts are proper for courtship but that jewellery isn't acceptable until an understanding has been reached. They also aren't aware that it's not only accepted but expected for a Pureblood wizard to have a number of lovers."
"I wasn't aware you had a mistress," Hermione noted idly and Draco flushed.
"I haven't. I haven't ever felt the need to stray from my marriage bed." Again, the two exchanged a look that a drunk Hermione couldn't quite decipher. "My mother and father both have had second lovers. My father had a string of mistresses when I was going back and mother had a Muggleborn gardener that she was particularly close with."
"Do you have a lover?" Hermione asked Astoria bluntly and she was surprised to see the woman's eyes appraised her carefully. The look was heated and Hermione was quite certain she wasn't imagining it.
"Not yet," Astoria murmured, "perhaps soon."
"Anyway, I bring the topic up for a reason," Draco said, clearing his throat and Astoria turned her gaze back to Draco.
"Ah. Yes. I have a gift for you," Astoria said as she got to her feet and retrieved a small package from the coffee table. She handed it over and Hermione grinned as she realized that the heft and the size could only be one thing.
"Oh, I love books," Hermione said as she pulled the wrapping off of them and shifted through them, "and they're on Wizarding culture."
"I can't imagine you've read any of these," Draco said as he took a sip of his whiskey, "they are from the Malfoy, Nott, and Greengrass collections and most of those books only exist in a few copies. The one was given to Astoria by her mother before she went to Hogwarts because Lady Greengrass was worried that she would be inappropriate.
"Why was she worried about that?" Hermione asked.
"My sister, Daphne, she…well, she was a bit of a rebel. She kissed Blaise when they were eleven and I believe that she accepted a bracelet from Theo at the end of their second year before she consulted my mother. Lord Nott insisted that my family accept the understanding. It worked out, they're married now but my mother was rather worried."
"Why?"
"Understandings are rather difficult to break and the Notts were closely affiliated with Riddle, Theo's grandfather was a member of Riddle's inner circle when he was in school. The Greengrasses had hoped to engage Daphne to a less extreme family, perhaps even to prominent Halfblood if it came down to that. Potter's name came up more than once," Draco explained, "Zabini would have been much preferable, even."
"As such, I was educated much more rigorously in order to ensure I knew my place. Of course, Riddle insisted that Draco and I enter into a courtship so I'm not sure it really helped," Astoria noted with a small smile, "I wouldn't change it for the world, though."
"These must be incredibly valuable," Hermione said after a moment, having leafed through the books, "some of them look to have been copied by hand. And this one is a first edition, and it's simply pristine. This is too much."
"Nonsense," Astoria assured her, "I am certain that giving you these books will be beneficial for me as well. Besides, I haven't a need for them. Any daughters I have will be raised properly, and not by house elves like my sister and I were. And if they decide to enter an understanding at 12, so be it. I'm sure any of my children will have a good head on their shoulders."
"So long as any daughter stays away from Potter's oldest. The boy's a menace."
"He's four," Hermione laughed, "how much of a menace could he possibly be?" Draco simply glowered.
"The younger isn't too bad. He and Scorpius have had a playdate and they seemed to get along." Hermione vaguely remembered the playdate. Ron had been incredulous when Ginny had taken the children over to the Manor. Harry had merely shrugged and let his wife do what she pleased.
Astoria had shifted closer to Hermione again.
"I've marked a few chapters that you might find of particular interest," Astoria said, indicating to where she'd magically highlighted the chapters, using a charm that was easily reversible and wouldn't harm the parchment, "of course, I'm sure you'll read the whole thing. I admire your dedication to knowledge." The scent of the woman's perfume was assaulting Hermione's nostrils again and Astoria's hands were so delicate. The fingernails were perfectly manicures. Absently, Hermione noted that instead of silver they were done in a pale gold color.
She wondered what those fingers would feel like buried in her hair. For that matter, she wondered if the dark hair falling across Astoria's face would feel like silk.
"I think it's nearly time to be heading home," Hermione said abruptly. She got to her feet, rather unsteadily and Astoria stood and steadied her with a small hand.
"Allow me to escort you to the Floo," Draco offered with a small smile. With relief, she took the proffered arm.
"Thank you for coming," Astoria smiled, brushing her lips on Hermione's cheeks in goodbye. Hermione flushed darkly and she thought she heard Draco chortle under his breath as he led her to the Floo and ensured she didn't fall over.
"Good night," Draco said as he handed her the Floo powder, "we hope you'll come again."
"You're a rather awful tease," Draco chided his wife as he returned to the sitting room. Astoria had retaken her seat and was sipping a glass of water and merely raised an eyebrow, "the poor woman hadn't the foggiest idea as to what you were doing."
"Oh? Was it just Hermione who was struggling?" she asked, rather pointedly directing her gaze to her husband's trousers. Draco rolled his eyes.
"You are a beautiful witch," Draco replied, "and so is she, as much as it pains me to admit it, she grew into quite the sexy thing. You have good taste in witches and if I have to set you up with a woman, I'm glad it's Granger. She's tolerable anyway and seeing you two together is quite the treat."
"Pervert," Astoria accused with a smile and Draco merely shrugged.
"Think she'll realize what we're up to when she reads those books?" he asked.
"She's incredibly intelligent. I doubt she missed that I was flirting with her throughout dinner and towards the end I think I was getting fairly obvious so even if she missed that she certainly didn't miss my hints later. I'm sure the fact that I've only highlighted sections about mistresses will tip her off. Especially since an early courtship gift is 'books or other items the witch might enjoy.'"
"What if she thinks I'm the one who wants to court her?"
"Oh, I think we've laid that notion to rest, my love. Would you like to take care of that?" she asked, eyeing Draco's trousers. Without waiting for an answer she slipped to her knees in front of him and undid the button and zipper.
"Oh Merlin," Draco swore as his beautiful, proper, Pureblood wife proceeded to give him a blowjob that would put a prostitute to shame.
AN: Apologies for the delay, I've been without Wifi in my apartment for several weeks. I hope you enjoy.