Chapter 18
July 11th, 1994
"What is she doing here?!"
Hermione sat on the wet floor, with her face turned towards Draco and Theo when the voice shrieked. Hermione grimaced. Hard.
Then she turned towards the female voice, her face turning into a large smile while emitting an overly sweet voice. "Greengrass, how lovely to see you again!"
"Draco?! What is she doing here?!" Behind Daphne Greengrass, Narcissa arrived with towels.
"She's obviously sitting, Daphne." Draco said, and when she looked to him she only just caught him rolling his eyes - while dragging off his soaked shirt.
Hermione felt her face going completely red, instantly, and looked away.
"I can see that, Draco, but what the hell is she doing here?!"
"Do stop shouting, Daphne. Here you go, my darlings." Narcissa said and handed each of them a towel. Hermione stood and did her best to dry up the worst of the water WITHOUT taking off any of her also-soaked clothes, before drying her hair and wrapping her curls up in it.
"She's visiting. Like she usually does in the summer." Draco said with a shrug. Hermione didn't miss the tone of voice, knowing that he knew exactly why she hadn't visited last year.
"But you - you know her? You've known her all this time?! A muggleborn?!" Greengrass wasn't calming down, and Hermione didn't know the blond-haired girl well enough to know either what would tick her or what would make her stop ticking.
Hermione sighed, and looked at Draco hoping that her eyes would urge him to fix the situation or else she would do it herself.
He took the bait. "We met just before Hogwarts - and have been friends - more or less - since then."
"Wha-what? So back at Hogwarts, in the library, you -"
"Let's just say, I know Draco's library pretty well at this point." Hermione snickered.
"Don't be rude Hermione, it doesn't become you." Narcissa chastised, "Dinner is served in 20 minutes. Do freshen up before you arrive - You're welcome to stay, Daphne." She said with a wave of her wand before she left them to their own devices, now a bit drier though still dirty as hell, Narcissa turned around and left.
'Yes Cissa,'s and 'Yes mum', echoed down the hall before the four of them followed along without a word.
Hermione was happily bringing up the rear of the group, and was walking as silently as possible. If no one could hear her, maybe Greengrass would just mysteriously forget that she was there in the first place? Everything would go back to normal!
Well - the normal where no one but her family and closest friends knew that she was friends with Draco, let alone Theo.
Did she want that?
The answer was a resounding NO, but then what the hell were they supposed to do now that someone else had found out? And why was Greengrass even at the manor in the first place? Was she a child of one of the adults that visited Lucius? Or was she among the group of people who didn't dream of her very untimely removal from the magical world because of her blood?
Hermione was reeling from questions, and she couldn't answer any of them.
When a fork in the hallway led one way to the dining room and the other towards the rooms, they split. Since Hermione had followed so far behind, she didn't miss the look that the girl gave her as the boys turned the corner.
Apparently, Daphne hadn't forgotten that she was there.
Hermione chose to simply ignore the look of icecold fury, and simply followed the boys around the corner. Once properly out of earshot, she heard Theo mutter; "Daph's angry."
"Uhu," Draco agreed, though much less somberly than his friend, and then the three friends each entered their rooms to change clothes and take a quick shower.
…
Dinner was a horrid, awkward affair. Nothing else could cover it.
To their credit, Lucius and Narcissa were lovely hosts as per usual, though it was painfully obvious that they knew exactly what was going on around the table. The weather, though it was now nice and not-so-desert-like, had been the first topic. Daphne had answered and returned questions or speculations herself, as Hermione was sure any good pureblood-girl had been raised to do.
Just the insinuations and stereotypes about the girl and her upbringing coursing through her head, was enough to give Hermione a bad taste in her mouth. She was raised better than that. Daphne obviously had a fairly good relationship with Draco and his parents, so how could she dare belittle the blond in front of her?
Though the food on the table was fantastic as always, it turned to lead in her mouth, and Hermione was having trouble eating any of it. She succumbed to just pushing the potatoes around her plate while nodding and smiling at the right places.
"So, Daph, was there a specific reason for your spontaneous visit or did you just miss me?" Draco asked sweetly. Hermione was unsure, but she thought she heard… A challenge?
"Oh!" The blond gasped like she remembered something completely out of the blue and sighed hard. "Yeah, I've spent the entire day with Vincent and Greg being 'social' with the adults, and I desperately needed some actual brains as company after having survived that. But I see you already have the brains right here, so let's hear it;" Daphne leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms and looked at Draco and Theo sourly, before turning her gaze towards Hermione, "What the hell is she doing here?"
"He already told you - they met before school started." Theo stated like it was the most natural thing, before stabbing a piece of salmon and bringing it lazily to his mouth. His dimples were shamelessly on full display as he looked like he was having the time of his life. Bastard.
"But that doesn't make any sense!" Daphne countered, exasperated. "I've known you since we were in diapers, and you've never even mentioned her! I would have remembered!" She was starting to sound rather put out.
Hermione was spontaneously reminded of how Draco in one of his letters, had suggested ditching Theo. This looked an awful lot like how it would probably have looked.
"Daphne, do you even realise who she is? Who are we?" He pointed to himself and Theo - who were still enjoying his dinner without a care in the world.
The girl looked dumb-struck, while Hermione noticed that Narcissa and Lucius had withdrawn to some sitting chairs in the corner, where they were talking without making any sounds. Probably a silencing charm of some sort?
"Of course, I do!"
"And you know who her best friend is?"
"Duh, I'm not stupid." She deadpanned.
"Then why the hell do you think I didn't tell anyone about her? This is the second week she's spent here. We do study sessions together at Hogwarts. We hang out. We talk, have fun and goof around - as soon as no one's around. Theo only knows because I had no other choice but to tell him."
Daphne looked like a bucket of icecold water was poured over her. Her eyes were wide and open as she whispered. "You can't be friends with her, Draco, it's dangerous! What if they find out?! It'll - they'll -" She was struggling to finish her sentences now, obviously terrified. Hermione had an inkling as to whom she was referring to, but dared not ask.
She knew the dangers of her and Draco - and Theo - being friends, and remembered a certain conversation with Sirius very vividly. He had told her to keep one's friends close in difficult times, and she had chosen to do just that. Sure, it was hard and they had had a lot of mountains to climb already, but she enjoyed being with them.
Enjoyed being their friend.
"Don't you think I know that?" Draco sneered, and Hermione froze in her chair. She had never thought that she would hear such a sound coming from Draco. Abruptly, he pushed his chair back and stood, pacing back and forth behind her and Theo. Every time he turned behind her, she felt a small gust of wind, emitting goosebumps all around her exposed arms.
She didn't know what to say.
What could she even do?
"We didn't talk for a year and a half because I chose that it was too dangerous for her to be around me, for her to even be seen with a bloody Malfoy of all people! These people - these -" He stopped suddenly, looking over her shoulder to where his parents were sitting in the corner. She still couldn't hear them, but she had a feeling that even if there had been no silencing charms in place, she still wouldn't have been able to hear them - because they would be utterly silent, their full attention on their only child as he raged.
His eyes then turned to her, and her heart broke for him.
They had talked it all through in little pieces at a time, sometimes more in writing than in person, so she knew what he had sacrificed. What she had sacrificed.
But seeing him hurting so much, made something tick in her.
If it ever came to that, she would bury every goddamned feeling in her body, if it meant keeping him safe from what was destroying him. She would let it all go in a heartbeat.
He was just a child - they all were... But as he looked at her, he looked like someone who had lived a dozen lifes already - had lived, and was ready to succumb.
"If they find out that a pureblood is friends with a halfblood so closely related to Harry Potter - they would kill her. And they would either force me to do it - or force me to- to watch."
She couldn't stand it anymore. Her chair crashed to the floor and with something between a jump, a run and walking, she flung herself around his middle and hugged him tightly. Let his arm wrap tightly around her shoulder.
"I'm here. I'm here and I'm not going. I'm here Draco." She whispered assuringly and she caressed his back with one arm while holding him tight with the other.
"I won't let them have you." He whispered. The other occupants of the room might have been able to hear her words, but his, they would not hear. They were for her ears alone and she would keep them in her heart until the end of the world.
"So that's it, then." Daphne said in a sort of finality, "We keep her safe - but if they find out, we let them know that you don't mess around with family."
