After a delicious elf cooked Sunday lunch at Malfoy Manor, Scorpius took Louis off for a fly, and to practice some fancy trickery they were both eager to learn, while Lyra and Dominique opted to lounge in the garden, enjoying the sun and a gossip. With the youngsters busy outside, Lucius and Narcissa settled in the main living room with Severus, who still resided at the manor and had his own set of rooms in the vast house. The main topic of conversation being Daniel and Victoire's upcoming wedding. To be honest everyone was hoping the couple would return from their viewing with good news and a wedding date would soon be announced.
When the floo did sound it was a bit earlier than anyone had expected, but when it clearly delivered several people to the manor, the trio gathered in the living room knew it was Daniel, Victoire and their parents returning from their hotel viewing. Readying themselves for good news, they were rather taken aback by the solemn atmosphere as Draco led the way into the living room. With barely a grunt of greeting, he headed over to the bar and poured several generous drinks, which he handed to the returning party.
"What's happened?" Lucius asked, noting the way Daniel was holding tightly to Victoire's hand, while his son kept giving his wife concerned glances.
"My foolish mother and idiotic brother happened," Bill answered with a sigh as everyone sat down.
"More like psychotic," Draco mumbled, earning him a glare from Hermione and a subtle nod of her head in Bill's direction. "Sorry," he apologised to his friend.
"There is no need to be sorry," Bill assured the younger wizard. "If anyone needs to be sorry it's Mum and Ron."
"What's going on?" Narcissa asked, immediately worried at the mention of Ron and Molly Weasley. They'd caused so much trouble twenty years ago, and she hated to think they were going to start again.
"While we were looking around the hotel gardens, Mum and Ron turned up," Bill explained.
"How did he manage that with his restraining order?" Lucius demanded. If Weasley had found a way around the order, then he was damn well going to be getting straight in touch with the Ministry, demanding they sort him out.
"The gardens were large enough for him to be just outside of the hotel while we were in the gardens and not be in breach of the restraining order," Hermione answered.
"But why did he show up?" Severus asked, guessing there was a reason why Weasley had suddenly shown his face after all these years.
"To show that he could attend the wedding without the order being revoked," Daniel snorted. "He honestly thought he could just turn up out of the blue and I would agree to him doing the same on our wedding day."
"Needless to say, we will not be using the hotel as our wedding venue," Victoire said, showing that she was in full support of her fiancé, despite the fact they were talking about her uncle.
"We can't use anywhere public in case he tries the same trick," Daniel said with a sigh. "You know, this makes me wonder how many times he's been closer to me than I realised. Obviously the restraining order keeps him far enough away from me that I've never seen him, but there might have been other times when he's been hovering in the background of my life and I've been totally unaware."
"I'd rather not think about that," Hermione said with a shudder. Even though more than twenty years had passed since all the drama with Ron had occurred, she still hadn't forgiven her former friend for trying to kidnap her son, and even now she still occasionally had nightmares where he'd gotten away with Daniel and she'd lost him.
"If public venues are out, why not use the manor," Lucius suggested. "He certainly wouldn't get anywhere near the manor. Or any other property we own come to that. You could even get married abroad. The chateau in France might be a good location as it would be easy for Fleur's side of the family to travel to."
"That is a very tempting offer Lucius," Victoire said.
"It is," Daniel agreed. "But I don't want to rush into making any decisions right now. Not when I'm still so rattled after this afternoon. I still can't believe he just turned up like that, and honestly thought we would be okay with it. Just how deluded is he?"
"I'm sorry to say, but when it comes to you, Daniel, certain members of my family don't think very clearly at all," Bill admitted. "Mum's just the same. More often than not she seems to accept that their actions all those years ago caused this rift and the family who don't know you only have themselves to blame, but then every now and again she reverts to believing that everything can be swept under the table and she can twist things to be how she wishes they could be. That is probably what this afternoon was about. I think she sees your wedding to Victoire as a second chance to get to know you and be part of your life."
"Well, she's just well and truly blown that one," Daniel snorted with a rough shake of his head. "Who knows, if she'd just accepted how I felt about her family then in time I might have warmed up to her. After all, she is Vic's grandmother. But after today's stunt, I know I cannot trust her and I really do not want to get to know her in the slightest. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, Bill, but it's how I feel."
"You're entitled to feel how you do, and given everything my mother has done, I really don't blame you in the slightest for not wanting to know her," Bill assured the young wizard who was about to become his son-in-law. "Mum's had made her own bad choices in all of this mess, and now she has to live with the consequences of those choices."
Thanking Bill for his understanding, Daniel decided he just wanted to go home and be with Victoire, so he and his fiancée said their goodbyes and headed home. Shortly afterwards, Bill and Fleur gathered their youngest two children and also headed home. However, Draco and Hermione were in no rush to go home and they shared another drink with Lucius, Narcissa and Severus.
"And how are you?" Narcissa asked her daughter-in-law as the men drifted into a conversation about a new deal the potions company Severus ran had just landed. "Today must have been a shock for you, seeing him for the first time in so long."
"To be honest, I couldn't really see him," Hermione admitted. "He was a shadowy figure in the distance. I suppose if he hadn't been in the shadow of the hotel, I might have been able to see him a bit better, but the restraining order keeps him far enough away so that I don't have to risk getting a good look at him. But it was still unnerving, knowing he was nearby and watching us. I have to admit, like Daniel I've wondered how many times he's done something similar in the past."
"Maybe you should speak to the Ministry about adding to the distance of the restraining order," Narcissa suggested.
"I doubt they'd go for that after more than twenty years," Hermione replied with a disappointed sigh. "Maybe I should have pressed for a greater distance all those years ago. But until today, I've never felt as though the restraining order was lacking in any way. It's done its job and we haven't seen or heard from Ron in years. Unless you count that letter he sent Daniel on his seventeenth birthday. I wonder why that was the first letter he sent him. Why didn't he try to write to him sooner?"
"Probably because he knew Daniel couldn't revoke the order until he was seventeen," Narcissa suggested.
"Even so, if I had been Ron, and I wanted the order removed, I would have tried to contact Daniel beforehand," Hermione said. "I probably wouldn't have risked writing to him before he went off to Hogwarts as chances were Draco or I would have seen the letters, but we wouldn't have been able to see if he was writing to Daniel once he was off at school. So why didn't Ron make contact then and try and win Daniel over before his seventeenth birthday?"
"I think you are showing your Slytherin side again, Hermione," Narcissa chuckled. "That train of thought is so very sneaky. I think we should think ourselves lucky that Weasley isn't that devious. And of course that Daniel isn't foolish enough to fall for such tricks. Even if he had tried buttering him up before he turned seventeen, Daniel would have seen through him."
"I would certainly like to think so," Hermione said with a small smile, confident that Narcissa was right and her son was smart enough not to fall for any tricks Ron might have pulled, or may still pull in the future.
After leaving the manor, Daniel couldn't get his grandfather's offer out of his mind. Getting married at the manor would certainly solve all of his worries over Ron, and he was sure his grandmother could make the place look even more spectacular than usual. But then there was the mention of the chateau in France, and he wondered if going away wouldn't be even easier. He knew the chateau was easily as big as the manor, and if they stuck to guests they really wanted at the wedding, he was sure the house could accommodate everyone.
After mulling over his thoughts all afternoon, Daniel settled Victoire down and asked her how she would feel about considering Lucius's offer of letting them use the chateau in France as a wedding venue.
"I've actually been thinking the same thing all afternoon," Victoire admitted with a tinkling laugh. "But how would it work, do you think?"
"I suppose we could do whatever we wanted," Daniel replied with a slight shrug. "But I was thinking we could just keep it casual, and keep the guest list to the people we really don't want to get married without. Everyone can stay at the chateau, and it can be just one long party with a wedding in the middle."
"I do like the idea of something more relaxed and informal," Victoire admitted. "What about guests? Obviously our parents and siblings are invited. Who else would you really want there?"
"The obvious ones are my grandparents," Daniel said. "Besides, I do think it's rude to use their house and not invite them."
"True," Victoire agreed with a laugh.
"The other obvious one is Severus. We've always been close, and he's as good as family. I would also want my godparents there, which means Neville, Luna and their family, and your Uncle George and his family. Blaise and Greg have also been like uncles to me, and they're almost like brothers to Dad. And finally, there's Alicia. She was our nanny for years, and a bit like Severus, she's considered family. I think that's all for me, so who would you add?"
"Uncle Charlie," Victoire answered without hesitation. "You know he always stays with us when he's visiting, and along with Uncle George they're the family we're closest to. I'd also want my Grand-mère and Grand-père, and my Aunt Gabrielle and her family."
"And how would you feel about leaving out other members of your family?" Daniel checked. "If we do this, we can't even say we're eloping. This is very much a snub towards certain parts of your family."
"Before this afternoon, I wouldn't have dreamt of considering something like this," Victoire admitted. "But gran was way out of line, and she's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she can't be trusted. To be honest, if we got married in this country and she was invited, I would spend half my day wondering if she was up to anything. I don't want that sort of stress and distraction on our wedding day. I want it the day to be about us, and I want us to share it with the people we love and trust. And while I do love my gran, I can't trust her not to pull another stunt like today. Of course I do feel bad for grandpa, but we can hardly invite him and shun gran. But I'm sure he'll understand that we're doing this as I think it's going to be the only way we can get a worry free day."
"So we're doing it?" Daniel checked, his face breaking into a wide grin as relief flooded his entire body. "We're taking up grandpa's offer of the chateau?"
"We are," Victoire confirmed, grinning back at her fiancé. "And I want to do it soon. I want to be Mrs Daniel Granger as soon as possible."
"I'm sure that can be arranged," Daniel said, sweeping his fiancée into his arms and giving her a searing kiss. "I love you, Vic," he whispered against her lips.
"I love you too," Victoire returned, wrapping her arms tightly around her fiancé's neck and pulling him closer so they could celebrate the fact they'd made some decisions about their wedding.
Now they knew it was going to be held in the Malfoy chateau in France, their guest list was pretty much sorted and they knew they wanted to do the deed as soon as possible. With any luck by the end of the summer they would be embarking on their new life together as husband and wife.