"He lives!" Theo exclaimed as Malfoy walked into the drawing room with Goyle in tow.
Malfoy held his arms out to present himself, and Blaise rolled his eyes at his theatrics. "Not you, tosser, Greg. Goyle senior is bloody terrifying when he is angry."
Malfoy chuckled as he leaned against the wall.
"You have no idea," Goyle responded, looking around first before responding further. "You lot play too much. My great aunt's portrait is still wailing on about you dumping her husband into her frame."
"Thought the couple may appreciate the reunion. She had to live the last twenty years of her life without him," Theo said in defense of himself.
"Pretty sure she's the one who did him in, actually," Goyle threw out offhandedly.
"Ha! Even better."
Malfoy shook his head and laughed with his friends. He had been kept busy in Lucius' absence, and Hermione had been pushing the boundaries of leaving the room in response. There was another group of death eaters sitting around the fireplace that have been there since before lunch. Several death eaters let details slip with one another that they don't allow around the Malfoy's.
One of the death eaters at the fireplace is Dolohov. His loyalty to the pure blood agenda has never wavered. Not when he was formally addressing the group, and not when he was whispering in corners. He was Hermione's least favorite type of death eater, having nearly no redeeming qualities to humanize him. There was something about the way he was always subtly threatening Malfoy and speaking to him like an arrogant child that also contributed to her dislike of him.
They were talking about the two typical hot points: how many people they have gotten to join and flushing out anyone involved in the resistance. It was encouraging anytime she heard the death eaters worrying about the Order. The remaining members were doing a good job setting Voldemort's followers back in their efforts. The further time got away from the battle, the more they had recuperated and fought back. Dolohov said they are now starting to take the offensive in smaller wizarding villages.
"I spoke with the Dark Lord and he confirmed, we have allowed them to remain neutral for far too long," Dolohov drew on, talking about St. Mungo's.
The hospital healed any witch or wizard that came in with injuries. The death eaters had been fighting them consistently to hand any mudbloods or blood traitors over to them. Voldemort's Army was more brutal than before the battle, and there was no saying what they would do if they got ahold of anyone actively fighting in the resistance.
"We are to schedule our attack when Lucius returns. His stay at Hogwarts is taking longer than expected but he should be back by the end of the week."
"And the Dark Lord is in favor of attacking the hospital?" Nott Sr. replied. "We have a lot of our own recovering in there."
When Hermione first saw Theo's father at the manor, she recognized him immediately as the death eater responsible for her capture. She would take an exceedingly amount of joy in personally ruining anything he had planned after she was freed during Malfoy's party.
If she was freed.
"They left us with no choice. We will minimize damage where we can. The important part is getting to the supplies and potions rooms. Once we are in control of those, the healers won't have a say in who gets what anymore."
"And if they resist?"
"We'll influence them by any means necessary."
The death eaters surrounded Dolohov nod understandingly as he continued. "Doing any mindful task under the imperius is a challenge. We should only have to demonstrate with one or two. The others will fall in line when they realize we are not going to take their defiance any longer."
Any member of the resistance in the hospital would be handed over or killed. Not to mention the countless that would die if they cannot have their wounds tended to. She listened to the rest of the conversation while praying that the attack won't be scheduled until after Malfoy's party so that she can at least attempt a warning.
She glanced over at Malfoy and the others as she was passing the drawing room on her way back from the east side of the manor. The room had become empty save for them since the hour or so after Dolohov's conversation ended. The young men were still standing in the same corner catching up. The group's laughter filled the hall.
Malfoy was turned slightly explaining something to Goyle while Theo and Blaise have their backs facing the room. Blaise leaned in and whispered something to Theo, placing his hand on his lower back. Theo just dropped his head and laughed but couldn't help to steal a few more looks from the corner of his eye at his friend. It was peculiar at times the way Theo and Blaise got each other's attention or exchanged whispers. It was only when they were sure no one was watching and involved more touching than she had seen between Malfoy and Goyle.
Malfoy isn't really the touching type, she justified as she continued on her way. He always kept his hands busy while he talked or had one in the pocket of his robe while he twirls his wand in the other. When he was less relaxed, sometimes he played with the family ring that sat on his right hand.
Hermione had found the Malfoy library and what she assumed is a piano room a couple days prior and had returned to it each day. The library was second only to the one at Hogwarts. The ceiling reached three stories tall with books lining the walls all the way to the top of the sky window. The bottom floor had rows of bookcases and several alcoves that held comfortable reading nooks. It was impossible to see the entire library from standing in one spot, and Hermione didn't venture very far for fear of getting turned around.
Since Malfoy wasn't obligated to eat in the dining room with his father away, they had been holding formal dinners in the study. Hermione's lack of etiquette drove him mad, and his dramatic responses only encouraged her more. He never left early or cancelled on her, however, and would try to ignore her antics for as long as possible before caving in. Yesterday she attended already dressed in her pajamas and he had to mention it no less than four times.
She couldn't stop from smiling when the first course of their meal appeared, having selected tonight's menu herself for the first time.
"What did you do?" Malfoy deadpanned at her.
"What do you mean?" She said smiling around her glass as she took a sip of ale.
Malfoy's wrists were still sitting elegantly at the edge of the table. As his eyes dropped from her to the plate of chips.
"I knew the whole 'culture of Camden Town' was a bunch of bollocks. How did you even get the elves to prepare this?" He pushed at the plate with his fork.
"Well, to be totally transparent I wasn't sure exactly what was going to show up tonight." She took a bite of a chip and gave a satisfied hum. "I'll never doubt them again."
"What is that?" He asked, genuinely concerned at the pile of green vegetables on the plate.
"Mushy peas," she went to grab a small bit to put on her plate. "They taste much better than they look, trust me."
Malfoy snatched the plate and held it in the air off to the side.
"You can't eat this, Granger." The genuine concern in his voice had her laughing out loud.
"I tried dragon tartare. I think you can give some chips a go," she challenged him.
He put the plate back down and looked at it. He stabbed a chip with a fork examining it, and for a moment Hermione believed he was about to give it a try.
"Neddy!" He called and the elf appeared with a pop. "Cancel whatever selection Granger has planned for tonight. What are you serving in the dining room?"
"Err… Mr. Nott requested lamb chops this evening sir, paired with-"
"Excellent, we will have that instead."
"No! Neddy we will go on with dinner like we have planned." The elf whipped her head between her master and Hermione with horror in her eyes, not knowing what to do.
"I gave you an order," Malfoy stated authoritatively. But she can hear a sliver of surprise that Neddy didn't head out on his command like she usually did.
"Err… Miss would like to have lamb chops as well?" she said hopefully to Hermione.
"It doesn't matter what she wants. I am your master. You follow my instructions," He nearly barked at her.
Hermione shot him a look that could kill, but the look of concern on his face eased her annoyance a bit.
"Yes! Of course, sir. It is just that… Well it's just, Neddy is commanded by sir to obey the miss as well." Malfoy eased a bit at her statement.
"That's right Neddy, thank you for the reminder. And it was just last night that Malfoy instructed you to get tonight's menu from me, so by keeping it as planned you are actually listening to both of us."
After a few more seconds of terror from the elf, Malfoy waved his hand and put the plate back on the table.
"Fine, at least bring us wine."
"No way. You have a perfectly good ale right in front of you. That'll be all until the next course, Neddy. I apologize for the confusion."
Neddy waited for Malfoy to nod and then disappeared. Hermione continued to eat in silence as Malfoy stared a hole through her head. She let out a sigh, having significantly less fun than a moment before.
"Better start eating Draco, or there'll be no dessert for you." He rolled his eyes but finally took a bite of a chip.
"And what is for dessert, dare I ask? Cockroach clusters?" He forked another chip and took a sip of his ale.
"This meal is usually served with loud music. Do you ever have anything playing in the dining room?" Hermione offered as conversation.
"Not typically. Sometimes we'll hire a pianist to play during holiday meals, but mother finds it distracting to the conversation."
"Hmm, my mum loves music during dinner, she had hundreds of records to choose from. After dinner my father would play the piano in the living room while we had our coffee and dessert." Hermione smiled sadly to herself at the memory. "On weekends I'd wake up to him playing in the morning as my mum read by the window. It was one of their favorite routines, even though most of the time they would just ignore each other."
"How romantic. My parents just ignore each other in silence." She chuckled and they continued to eat and drink. "I'm joking obviously. Mother will not be ignored."
"No. I imagine she wouldn't."
The conversation flowed more freely as each day passed and Malfoy needed hardly any coxing to try his hamburger. Even if he did so with a knife and fork.
Dessert arrives and she can tell Malfoy was eager to try the sticky toffee pudding and ice cream. Hermione adjusted in her seat to get more comfortable and bent one leg casually up so that her foot rested on the chair as she took a forkful of the stick pastry.
Malfoy shook his head at her improper posture. "Right when we were starting to get on."
Lucius returned on Thursday and Malfoy immediately started working on getting access to the guestlist. It turned out that Lucius will have several death eaters granting individual guests' access by validating their invitation and wands to the enchanted list. Malfoy offered to work the entrance for a while to sneak Hermione by, but Lucius wouldn't hear it.
It was always a long shot, but Hermione had let herself hope. She tried to remain optimistic, knowing their original plan to have Malfoy receive control over the wards was still very much a possibility. The days leading up to the celebration had Malfoy so busy she took to eating by herself at the coffee table again.
"Does Malfoy always have this caliber of celebration for his birthday?" She asked Neddy the day before the party.
"Master had a large celebration when he came of age last year, miss. But tomorrow is much more important. Very important to master Lucius."
Malfoy had seemed anything but excited for the event anytime she spoke with him. He seemed anxious and nervous more than anything. It was quite unfair that the first social event since Voldemort's victory had to be his birthday.
"Is there anything he typically likes for his birthday? Anything he doesn't already have?" Hermione felt guilty that she wouldn't be able to get him anything, but she could owl him something one day to make up for it later.
The elf thought for a moment, "Master Draco loves treats. Used to eat cake for breakfast on his birthday until he came of age."
Hermione hummed. She had already noticed Malfoy's affinity for sweets. "What kind of cake? Is it difficult to make?"
"Err… Miss isn't supposed to leave the suite. Neddy shouldn't take her to the kitchens."
"Could you bring me the supplies here? I should be able to cook it with a cauldron warmer or maybe even the fire?" She got excited about the idea. Baking was practically brewing and the Polyjuice potion still had several days until the next phase and hadn't been providing her much to do. The elf smiled and came back with the supplies and ingredients after they finished eating.
On the morning of Malfoy's birthday, he had already left by the time Hermione woke up. She didn't expect to see him until later in the day, but he must return at some point to change into his dress robes before the party tonight. The uncertainty of when that would be made Hermione leaving the room was too much of a risk. It was only a half hour before the event was scheduled to begin that he returned.
"Happy Birthday!" she exclaimed cheerily.
He smiled back at her without thinking. He kept walking towards his bedroom door past where she sat on the couch.
"Thank you. Sorry I am already behind, or I'd join you for a cup."
"Wait! I've got something for you," she said as she turned towards him and sat up on her knees on the couch.
"Have you?" He sounded genuinely surprised at her statement.
"Well, it's practically nothing really. But it felt wrong to not at least acknowledge your big day," she explained while handing him the small box.
He looked it over quickly and saw she had folded the box out of old Daily Prophets. The lid of the box showed a photo of him that accompanied the article about his upcoming celebration.
"Clever." He said with a smirk as he took the lid off.
"I thought so," she chimed proudly.
His brows came together as the box unfold once the lid was removed revealing the small cake. He looked up at her questioningly.
"It's spiced apple with brown sugar frosting. A little elf told me it was your favorite."
"You made this?" She nodded in confirmation. "How?"
"It took me a few tries. Leave it to you to favor a cake that has a million steps." She poked at him. "I ended up finding the right distance in the fireplace so that the cake could heat enough to cook without burning. I had to use two cast iron pans in addition to the cake pan to keep the temperature consistent but- well that's not the point."
She was starting to feel self-conscious now. Which was ridiculous because the premise of the gift was to be silly anyways. "You don't have to eat it-"
"It's great. I'm just surprised." He cut her off, though his previous smile had not returned. He walked around to the table and set the lid on it while Hermione turned back around to sit and face him. He remembered himself and grinned at her.
"I can't believe you found a way to bake me a cake."
"My options were limited, and unfortunately I don't have the talent to knit you a sweater."
He scoffed. "If you did, you'd steal it."
She crossed her arms defiantly, which would have had more of an effect if she wasn't currently wearing one of the stolen items. He raised an eyebrow before looking back at the clock.
"I really am late. Try to keep your hands off this until I come back, yeah?"
Malfoy exited his room several minutes later in a set of dress robes she had never seen before. His hair was combed and gelled, though not all the way back like he did on normal days. It looked less businesslike and more like it was effortlessly tossed to the side. His robes were mostly black including the shirt, and his vest was modestly embroidered with a deep navy color. It was very subtle but still made his ensemble look incredible. He was still fiddling with the button on his sleeve when made his way to the drink cart.
"Dashing as ever," she said dramatically.
"Cheers," he responded with his back still turned. He threw back his whiskey in one go and decided to pour himself another.
"Shouldn't you be at least a little excited?" she asked gently.
"There is a lot that could go wrong tonight," he answered, swirling the liquid in the glass and continued talking with his back still to her. "I would almost prefer hiding up here with- like you are."
"One of the many things to envy about me," she quipped back. Her plan worked and he started to relax a little more as he went to leave.
"Thank you, for the gift," he threw out awkwardly before walking out.
"May not want to thank me before you try it."
Malfoy was only gone for a few minutes before Hermione grabbed her cloak and beaded bag to follow.