Hermione flood from the French public floo terminal to the address that Narcissa had given her, feeling anxious as she stepped out of the fireplace she steeled her nerves. This was the first time that she was ever visiting another Pureblood Manor alone, normally Harry was with her for support, this time it was her alone. Narcissa had certainly seemed genuine when she had reached out and spoken about spending time getting to know each other as family, but now that she was here Hermione couldn't help but wonder if it was just part of Lucius Malfoy's attempts to woo her brother.
Narcissa swept into the room, her robes flowing around her as she walked. "Cousin, I am glad you are here." She led her from the floo room to an opulent lounge where she insisted that Hermione sit while she called for drinks to be brought in. To her Hermione's surprise it was a young man who brought in their drinks and not a house elf, she didn't mention anything but she could see that Narcissa saw her surprise.
"Markus employs squibs for general serving." Narcissa explained, "He prefers to keep his elves behind the scenes as it were. Anyway, how can I help you cousin? I had not expected to see you again so soon, although I am glad of it. I had wondered if you would actually be amenable to a relationship on a familial level after everything that has gone on in the past."
Hermione smiled at her, she had heard many things about Narcissa Malfoy over the years, a lot of it conflicting, but the one thing that lots of people had remarked on was her sense of familial bonds. "I had lunch with Lucius today," Hermione began, pausing for a moment to think of how to phrase her next statement, "I am aware that he is attempting to seduce my brother and I believe that you are involved in his plans."
Narcissa just smiled at her, "He has no idea does he? He is completely oblivious to Lucius' attention, it is rather interesting to watch. Lucius is used to people throwing themselves at him for what they can get from him, he has never had to woo anyone before so off course he came to me for advice."
Hermione had known that Narcissa would be involved, it was just a feeling, but she knew that she would get some more answers by coming to France. The woman seemed to be willing to talk about the situation, and Hermione was hoping that she would be able to find out as much as she could. Lucius had seemed genuine in his pursuit of her brother, but she wanted to corroborate that from another source if possible. Narcissa had seemed like her best shot to do that, and the woman had extended the invitation for her to visit.
"Lucius admitted to me that he is hoping to bond with Harry, was he just trying to assuage my protectiveness or is that his end goal? Is he serious about my brother, or is he just looking trying to boost his reputation?" Hermione asked as Narcissa poured her a cup of tea.
"Lucius is looking for an equal, someone that he can enjoy life with, and hopefully have a full relationship with. Our marriage was arranged as I am sure you are aware, our parents made all the arrangements without any input from either of us. We just had to turn up and follow through on the bonding and then live up to the Pureblood ideal. Our preferences, or Lucius' definitely were never taken into account, his parents wanted him married to a Black and the contract was drawn up shortly after my birth. They never even considered that their Heir would prefer his own gender and that the marriage would be nothing but a sham life, it didn't matter, the prestige of the Black line was all that mattered." Narcissa paused, taking a quick drink.
"That's not to say that we were unhappy, Lucius is my best friend and we made our marriage work for us. Neither of us objected to the other having lovers, luckily there were never any fidelity clauses put into our contract. Now though, the war is over and Lucius is thinking of himself and what he wants out of life. I am in the process of remarrying and I find that he wants something for himself, a relationship that is complete." Narcissa smiled, "As for why your brother, well I can only really guess in this instance, I am assuming that it is due to his fire, he is strong willed and not some delicate little man who would expect Lucius to spoil him, although he no doubt will anyway."
Hermione nodded, that answered some of her questions, she had wondered about the affairs that she knew had been carried out by both parties in their marriage and she had wondered if Lucius would intend to carry on in the same way while bonded to her brother. To hear that it was a result of preference and had been mutually agreed upon by both of the calmed her nerves a bit. She had not wanted to have to deal with a broken hearted Harry if Lucius was playing around on him.
"So, other than advice what was Lucius looking for help with? I am assuming his work with the orphans is more than just a charitable endeavour to indebt the future generations to him while looking philanthropic as he does so." Hermione queried. She had an idea of what he could have needed help with, but she was unsure if she should just come out and ask if he wanted help to break up Harry and Ginny's relationship.
"Miss Weasley was obviously an obstacle, Lucius wanted me to use my connections with the other Matriarchs to disgrace her so that it would have been a mistake to continue the relationship. I agreed immediately of course, partly for my own reasons as well, not that it was necessary in the end, Miss Weasley was quite capable of disgracing herself without any help." Narcissa began, "It may seem harsh that I was willing to disgrace the young woman, but for the protection of my family there is not a lot that I wouldn't do."
"Protecting your family?" Hermione asked, "How did getting rid of Ginny protect your family?" Hermione was confused, she could understand getting Ginny out of the picture for Lucius' sake, but she didn't quite understand how doing so protected anyone.
"We were once quite the family you know." Narcissa spoke, "The Blacks were a powerful family, a pillar in the magical world, now there are only six of us. Andromeda and myself, Draco, Harry and yourself and little Theodore, we are all that is left of the once proud Black family. The actions of Miss Weasley whilst dating the Head of the family were deplorable, and I hate to imagine how she would have acted had she bonded with your brother. Her actions reflect on all of us, I was not going to allow her to negatively affect myself or Draco. I have worked hard to keep my place with the Matriarchs over the years, especially through the war years, I was not going to allow Miss Weasley to jeopardise my hard work."
"Miss Weasley is nothing but a child who was trying to play at being a society Princess by being seen on the arm of a Lord, the young children I have been teaching at the orphanage have more maturity then she does and they definitely have more knowledge of society and how to comport themselves." Narcissa continued, "Her mother should be ashamed that she never taught her what she needs to know in life."
Hermione agreed, she had certainly thought that Mrs Weasley had several things to answer for, at least Mr Weasley was taking steps to rectify the situation. Hermione told Narcissa all she knew about the situation, how Mr Weasley had left educating the children to his wife and how she had been neglectful in not teaching them. Narcissa seemed amused that Muriel Prewitt had taken over the education of the youngest two Weasley children, the elder children having all either taught themselves or been taught by friends while at Hogwarts.
Narcissa steered the conversation away from the Weasleys and back towards their earlier topic of Harry and Lucius. She explained that while Harry was her head of house Lucius was family too and that she wanted the best for him, he was her best friend and the father of her child. She told Hermione how she genuinely believed that they would be a good match and that Lucius was not just out to better the Malfoy name.
Hermione certainly felt a lot less worried after her conversation with Narcissa and decided to try and put the idea out of her head for now, it wasn't as if Harry was going to notice Lucius' attempts anyway she had some time to figure out how things would work out. She turned the conversation away from her brother's love life towards Narcissa's work with the orphanage, trying to get a feel of the older woman's thoughts about the children there.
Hermione like Narcissa was also volunteering her time with the children as a tutor. While Harry had arranged for all the younger children to be schooled at the local muggle primary she was helping the older children who were suddenly having to learn a lot of things they had no idea about to catch up with the muggle children their age. She ran several sessions a week were the children would work on their homework all together, and have the chance to ask her any questions they had about the topics. The sessions would often turn into a discussion period were she explained something the children were struggling with and they would ask as many questions as it took to understand the material.
They discussed the children and their training for a while before Narcissa steered the conversation in the direction of Hermione's own education. They talked a while about Hermione's work at the Ministry, or what she could of it, after all the Unspeakables were mysteriously quiet about their work, and the pursuit of her Masteries. What Narcissa really wanted to speak about was her societal education, it was obvious that Lucius had her Lord's education well in hand, but the Heiress of the house seemed to be entirely self taught.
By the time Hermione prepared to leave Narcissa that evening she had agreed to regular tutoring from her cousin, and Narcissa had convinced her to help her write a better version of the etiquette books geared towards the young children at the orphanage. Most of the books available assumed that there was family around to impart many of the deeper lessons so only touched upon several subjects. Narcissa wanted the children to have an in depth reference that could help support her and Lucius' tuition.