A/N: This may or may not be one of my favourite chapters so far although nothing much happens except for the introduction of a new character :)

I hope you still like it!

Thanks to Sue for beta reading!

Abraxas Malfoy, in his small villa in Greece, had received the call, like all other Death Eaters on Friday, late afternoon. The burning of the Dark Mark.

After all those years, Tom Riddle had called.

And although he would be of little use to him now, he would come.

Shortly before the end of the war, Abraxas had almost died of Dragon Pox and due to lasting health issues and permanent scarring on the right side of his face and various parts of his body, he had passed down the title of Lord Malfoy to his son Lucius and had retreated to Greece after the war had ended. He only visited England now and again. On one of these visits, Lucius had told him of the girl he and Narcissa had taken in. A Muggle-born. In his youth he would have been disgusted. But really, what did it matter? He had been misguided by his upbringing, just like Tom had been blinded by the hatred towards his Muggle father. Tom had learned more quickly than him and after the Knights of Walpurgis had gone their separate ways, he hadn't seen him for a long time. Not until Dumbledore had started his campaign against him and ultimately them, the Old Families, too. He had been the first Tom had contacted.

Abraxas had never met the girl as she had been at Hogwarts during his last visit. He had wanted to come to his grandson's twelfth birthday, but his health hadn't allowed it and the next year his son and daughter-in-law had taken the children to Sri Lanka, where they had met Tom.

He knew why. Lucius and Narcissa had informed him in their regular letters that she was Tom Riddle's daughter. Who would have thought? He wondered how Tom took to fatherhood.

And now the call to reunite the Death Eaters.

Of course, he had heard of the incident during the World Cup, both from the press and from his family, so the call hadn't come completely unexpected.

Abraxas couldn't get to England for the meeting that had certainly taken place, but the next day he organised a Portkey to England and when he finally arrived at Malfoy Manor on Saturday, late evening, the day after the original summon, Tom greeted him like the old friend he was. He wouldn't hear of the apologies regarding his belated arrival and they sat together for a long time with Lucius and Narcissa, sipping drinks, talking, and he had listened to the whole story of how Dumbledore had, with the use of a magical contract akin to an Unbreakable Vow, forced Tom's 14-year-old daughter to participate in the Triwizard Tournament and how the girl had stood up to him and taken Tom's name. A Riddle through and through it seemed. He would meet her the next day. She and Draco spent the weekend at Malfoy Manor and would for the foreseeable future for additional training. They had already gone to bed when he had arrived.

Now, as he lay in a bed of his ancestral home, pondering everything he had just learned, he heard unsteady footsteps entering his suite, and then the door to his bedroom opened. It seemed like someone hadn't stopped drinking after everyone else had gone to bed. In the dark he could see Nagini settling on an armchair in the sitting room, making no move to follow her master further.

"Tom, are you drunk?" He asked, amused.

"Wasted." The man, who had gone to school with him, who was his age, but looked so much younger, closed the bedroom door and moments later fell into bed next to him and the familiar smell, the familiar feeling of having him close, was almost overwhelming.

"You never liked to get drunk. You never liked to lose control."

"I still don't." With a frustrated huff he turned onto his back and lay still for a while, then: "Is that what it is like to have children, Abraxas?"

He chuckled. "What? Feeling vulnerable? Being terrified for them more than you've ever been for yourself? Oh yes, my friend." He knew that feeling all too well. With Lucius having been Tom's second in command during the war.

"It sucks."

"Does it now?"

Silence. "No, not really. I just wish …"

"You could protect her," he finished his sentence and in dim glow of the dying fire, he saw him nod once.

He looked almost the same as back then, when they had shared two years before school and childhood had ended and Abraxas had done his duty and married Lucius' and Lydia's mother. Every time he had held her close, he had wished it to be someone else, but he had never been untrue to her. She had been a victim of Dumbledore's warmongering when Lucius had only been 16 and Lydia 14, but it had been too late, always too late.

And now … even though he wasn't truly an old man by Wizarding standards, it was still too late. He breathed in Tom's familiar scent, all too aware of what the Dragon Pox had done to his body.

"Yes," Tom answered quietly. "I can't lose her, Abraxas. I just found her."

"I know. And you won't. If she's anything like you, you won't."

And then Tom's lips were on his and without thinking, he reciprocated. Tom tasted of Firewhiskey.

"I'm not the pretty boy you used to share your bed with, Riddle," he said bitterly when they parted.

"Does it matter?"

Maybe it didn't. Not for tonight. When Abraxas pulled him close again, the fire went out and the room was bathed in darkness.

"Good morning," Lucius and Narcissa greeted Hermione and Draco as they entered the sun room for breakfast.

"Good morning."

"Morning." Draco's voice was merely a mutter. He wasn't a morning person.

"Your grandfather arrived yesterday night," Lucius said and at that he finally looked more awake.

"Really? That's great!"

Hermione knew that he regularly wrote to Abraxas Malfoy who lived in Greece, but she hadn't met the man yet. She knew that he had suffered permanent health damage from Dragon Pox and had therefore passed his titles on to his son early and retired to a villa together with two house elves. She also knew that he used to be a blood supremacist, but Lucius had once told her that he had changed a lot during the war.

They heard unregular footsteps approaching and a man walked in. Like Lucius, he had long hair and carried a cane, but unlike his son he actually used it for its intended purpose. His right leg seemed to be almost stiff. The typical Malfoy features were obvious, but marred by scale-like scars on the right side of his face and throat. He carried them with a dignity Hermione couldn't help but admire.

Draco, who had just sat down, got up again and hugged the man, who returned the gesture with his free arm. "It's good to see you, my boy."

"You too, grandfather." Draco turned to her. "Grandfather, this is Hermione Riddle."

The man turned to her and when she held out her hand, he did not shake it, but placed a formal kiss on the back of her hand. "A pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Riddle. I've heard so much about you already."

At the hand kiss, Hermione reciprocated with a quick curtsey, as Narcissa had taught her was the appropriate response. "The pleasure is all mine, Lord Malfoy."

He gave low chuckle. "There's only one Lord Malfoy, and he's sitting over there. Abraxas will do just fine." His eyes fell on Noodles, who was wrapped around one of Narcissa's ornamental plants, watching the exchange. "Ah, the infamous Shinohebi. Lucius wrote to me about that one. Extensively."

Draco snorted and Hermione tried very hard not to grin. Without much success. Lucius decided to focus on the Prophet, which was probably all about Dumbledore's fate.

While Abraxas made his way to the table, he continued talking. "At least the size is somewhat practical. Tom found Nagini when he was 17, but he couldn't take her into school with him, so she hid in the Forbidden Forest until he graduated. Of course he had his little pet at school, too."

He settled on a chair and Hermione just wanted to ask about how he knew about that, whether he knew her father well, and what little pet he meant, but Abraxas turned to his son. "I hope you have Hangover Potion in the house."

Lucius finally lowered the newspaper, raising an eyebrow. "Not that I know of. You don't look like you have a hangover, father."

"I don't, but someone is going to once he deigns to wake up." With a small smile he turned to Hermione. "Did your father tell you that we went to school together?"

"No, he didn't," Hermione answered truthfully.

"Well, we did. And yesterday, we had another drink after these two went to bed, or possibly more than one, and Tom usually never drinks more than a glass or two. He doesn't like not to be in control. After two or three more Firewhiskeys, he passed right out, didn't even make it to his own suite."

Hermione and Draco laughed, but she didn't miss the sceptical look Lucius and Narcissa exchanged.

"I can brew a Hangover Potion after breakfast," Draco offered, still grinning.

"I would very much appreciate that, Draco."

Hermione turned to the door. Her father, Nagini in tow, entered. He did look tired and rather beat.

"Good morning, Tom," Draco said cheerfully and loudly and Hermione couldn't help but grin at seeing him flinch at that.

"Good morning, brat." He sat down next to Hermione and opposite Abraxas, then he called for Bimsy to bring him a strong coffee instead of the tea they usually had for breakfast. Holding the cup in his hands, he raised his eyes at the former Lord Malfoy, a small smile on his lips. "You bring out the worst in me, Abraxas."

He inclined his head, no shame or regret evident. "Always have."

Hermione sat next to Draco and as he brewed the Hangover Potion in his potions lab.

After adding one of the ingredients, Draco pulled out his wand and magically closed the door. Hermione gave him a questioning look and he grinned as he continued with the potion. "My grandfather and your grandfather, from your mother's side I mean, were members of Tom's Knights of Walpurgis."

"Oh, I didn't know that." She had met her grandparents from the Nott side of the family. They had been friendly enough, but they had obviously disapproved of their daughter's relations out of wedlock and hadn't been as warm and inviting as Cassius and Maeve.

"That's not the interesting part. I once overheard Cassius talking to father and as it seems, your father and my grandfather were lovers before grandfather got married."

"What?" She couldn't help but stare at him. "Are you sure?"

"I guess. Cassius probably heard it from his father. Did you see how mother and father looked at each other when grandfather said Tom spent the night in his room?"

"I did." Hermione giggled. "Draco, too much information, that's my father you're talking about."

"I know. Just saying." He grinned at her.

"So, they had to separate because Abraxas got engaged?" It had probably been an arranged marriage. Or maybe he had just fallen in love with someone else.

"Yeah, I guess so. But I suppose they knew from the beginning. There's a marriage contract between grandfather and grandmother that goes back to the year they were born."

"They were promised to each other when they were still babies?" She knew there were still arranged marriages between Pureblood families, but that was pretty wild.

"Sure, some still do that."

Hermione frowned. "Are you promised to anyone, too?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, father was already allowed to make his own choices. Within reason. Grandfather was still pretty much into blood supremacy back then, so she had to be Pureblood, but there was no arranged marriage. Lucky for him he fell in love with a Black."

Hermine smiled. Yes, she couldn't imagine either Lucius or Narcissa with anyone else. Their relationship was literally everything anyone could hope for in a marriage.

"Anyway, same for me. Although, I'd be surprised, if father or mother would truly care about her blood status. They'd never force me into marrying with someone I don't like, though."

She couldn't imagine that either. Draco was very much loved by his parents and forcing him into a potentially unhappy marriage was not something she'd expect of them.

"So, your father and my grandfather …"

"Draco, drop it!"

He laughed as he filled the finished Hangover Potion into vials.

"What was your 'little pet' at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked after her father had finally, after several hours in the afternoon, declared that training was over for today. She had enjoyed it, but after discussing the oncoming interviews all morning, some magical theory and then practical training, even she felt like she had enough for one day.

"Pardon?"

"Abraxas said that you hid Nagini in the forest until you graduated because you couldn't take her into the castle with you, but he added something like 'but of course he had his little pet in there, too". Was it a regular snake?" In that case, it would long be dead, of course.

He surprised her by a soft laugh. "You can find out yourself. Go to the girls' bathroom on the first floor, make sure no one else is in there and don't take your friends when you go for the first time. You can take them later after you announced them, but never let Lucius hear a word about it, because he may just throw me out. Stand in front of the first sink and tell it to open in Parsel, like with your locket. And then just follow the path."

"The path?"

"You'll see."

She couldn't wait to try that out! For now, she looked up at her father with a little grin. "So, were you hanging out in girls' bathrooms a lot?"

In the evening, after Hermione and Draco had left, Abraxas Malfoy could no longer hide is amusement. Here he was, in the company of three of the smartest, most observant people he knew, and he wondered how they could all be so bloody dumb.

He remembered a letter from Lucius not even a year ago. She's very much like Cyrelia, I see little of Tom in her. Maybe his son needed glasses.

"You do know you all wasted your breath during dinner, right?"

"What do you mean?" Narcissa looked up from the embroidery she had been working on.

He snorted and resolved to quoting some of what they had sad. "'Leave it to us, Hermione, except when you're specifically told you can get involved.' 'Don't worry about your marks too much this year, you have other priorities.' And my personal favourite, Lucius, 'it's not about winning for you, you just have to get through the tasks in one piece'. She agreed to everything, with the sweetest smile on her face, and you all fell for it, the same way you give people your most charming smile and immediately have them in the palm of your hand." He gave his old friend a pointed look and when his eyes fell on Nagini, he could have sworn the snake looked amused. She knew as well as he did. "All the while she had the same look in her eyes that you always had when a teacher told you what to do and you fully intended to do what you wanted anyway. You think she's like Cyrelia because she looks like her, and even that is only half-true. That girl is all you, Tom." He was absolutely convinced that was true, except for a few traits she seemed to have from her mother, which included, luckily for her, a better connection to her feelings. Abraxas was all too aware that Tom, contrary to what some may believe, had feelings, but it was hard for him to identify or acknowledge them, let alone act according to them. At least on first look that seemed to be different for Hermione, she was acting more natural for teenager her age, especially when she interacted with his grandson. Tom had always been different, although he was good at hiding it. "I watched your training for a while. The same focus, the same ambition, the same talent. And just like you, she notices everything, not just in training." And he had no doubt that, like her father, she liked to remember certain details, keep them to herself, and use them to her advantage later. It was a pity he had missed the Death Eater meeting on Friday. He would have liked to see her there. He had left Lucius his Pensieve, maybe he'd have a little talk with Severus at some point and have a look at his memories. He was reasonably sure that man wasn't fooled. "And about what you wrote around Christmas last year, Narcissa, that the children buckled and told you about your cousin's hiding place. Was it really 'the children' or was it Draco?" As his daughter-in-law didn't say anything, he chuckled. "Oh, you are all going to have a nice little wake-up-call with that one."

Even if there hadn't been the threat of Dumbledore to deal with, he wouldn't have gone back to Greece for anything now. This was far too entertaining.

~tbc~