I know this story doesn't appeal to everyone but if you are enjoying it (despite the dark subject..) let me know. I'd love to discuss it and hear reader's ideas and thoughts.

A note about this chapter: I'm not trying to make the Malfoys look nice or fluffy as they certainly aren't but at the same time compromises have to be made if Hermione is living with them and I think Narcissa would be more likely than the other two to try and make her feel welcome, in her own way.

"That's it? That's all we get?" John was fed up trying to hold back his anger and as much as he wanted that annoying man to leave he still needed answers from him.

"Mr Granger, unfortunately you took some time to recover from Side-Along Apparition and that ate into your time with Hermione. The process is more difficult for Muggles, I'll grant you, although I did advise you of that before we left."

"That isn't fair. None of this is fair. I need to speak to someone in charge."

But Mr LeRoy just smirked as he looked up from the parchment he was writing on.

"You're already speaking to someone in charge; of your case, that is. Now, if you don't mind, now that I've brought you home I really must be off. You'll be seeing your daughter again in a month's time, as promised."

"Couldn't we at least have a better room for our visit?" Mary offered, relieved that at least the sitting room was no longer spinning, "Maybe something a bit less drab, a few toys for Hermione, that sort of thing?"

Mr LeRoy stared at her, then sighed and shook his head. "Can I remind you both that Muggles are not normally allowed in the Ministry and that a very special exception is made for parents of Muggleborns so that they can visit their children. A room is set aside for that purpose, and that purpose alone, and even that concession is considered too much by certain people. I think you should simply enjoy the time you have with your daughter."

Mary collapsed back into the armchair and her husband reluctantly signed the form that was placed in front of them to confirm that the Visit had taken place. Then Mr LeRoy disappeared with a pop, leaving the two of them struggling to take it all in.

"They've got it all worked out, haven't they? They set it up like a prison visit, with someone guarding the door so we don't run off with our own daughter." John paced up and down, his voice getting more and more agitated. "That's after they whizz us through some magic tunnel or other, so that we're too dizzy to ask questions. And you notice how there weren't any other parents like us around? They've timed those visits so we never meet each other. Then Le Roy tells us how lucky we are to be there? Yes, we're so lucky, aren't we? We get to sit in that little room with Lady Muck breathing down our necks and showing off with her stupid wand. "Show them how well you can write with a quill pen Hermione!" he mimicked.

"John, calm down. We need to think about this properly."

He sat back down again and let out a deep breath, his head in his hands. Mary came and sat next to him, leaning against him and rubbing his back to try to soothe him, despite her own fears.

"She said they were going home," Mary whispered, her voice fearful, "Home."

Both of them just sat there for a little while, both calmed by each other's presence, but with no more ideas about what to do. They had to get their daughter back but how?

oOo

Hermione cried herself to sleep that night, comforted only by her familiar toys next to her, and completely unaware that Narcissa had visited her until she saw the book on her bedside table the next morning. She knew she shouldn't have run off like that but seeing her parents again and then having to leave them was too much for her. And there were so many questions she hadn't asked them. She'd forgotten to ask about Amy and the other children at school and Buttons, the cat next door that often jumped up on the wall and peeked into their garden. And what about her library books? She hadn't even finished reading them but what if her mummy had forgotten about them and brought them back late?

One thing was certain: this wasn't her home. She lived at 25 Chestnut Avenue, Hazelhurst, London, not Malfoy Manor.

For a little while, before Twinkle arrived to get her dressed and ready, she tried to think of ways that she could see her house again. Perhaps if she was very, very naughty the Malfoys would send her home? She hated seeing other children throwing tantrums and answering back to their parents but maybe it would work?

Still thinking over her plan she got up and shuffled over to the window. Somewhere out there was a village, a Muggle village where people like her parents lived. She wished she knew how to get to it and if it was near enough to walk to on her own but could not see a road that might lead to it. If she made it there she could find a phone box and ring her parents so they could come and get her. They'd made her learn their phone number off by heart in case she ever got lost, along with their address. Then she remembered she'd no money and you needed a coin of some kind, or maybe several coins, to make a phone call. Would anyone in the village help her?

Twinkle's arrival interrupted her thoughts and she had no desire to be naughty in front of the house elf as the poor thing would probably blame herself, as she usually did when Draco misbehaved. And breakfast was so delicious and she was so hungry that it didn't seem like the right time to throw her tantrum. After breakfast the Malfoys asked to see her in the drawing room and sent Draco off to play, although he looked back at her, frowning in confusion, just before he left the room. As Uncle Lucius rose from the table he looked so powerful and intimidating she forgot all thought of misbehaving and followed the two of them with her shoulders drooping.

Auntie Cissa told her not to be nervous and sat her on the sofa next to her. They explained to her firmly but not unkindly that she could not storm off to her bedroom like that, or sulk for hours on end and unless she was sick she was to take her meals at the table with them. Uncle Lucius explained that a certain standard of behaviour was expected in this house while Auntie Cissa added that if she was upset about something she could tell them and they would try to help her.

"We know yesterday was difficult for you," she told Hermione gently.

It had been difficult, seeing her parents so lost and bewildered, in a world they didn't understand. And she knew, despite her young age, that they did not like Auntie Cissa very much and she didn't seem to like them either, even thought they were the nicest people in the world. She looked down at the ground, tears pricking at her eyes.

"I want to go home," she blurted out. She could feel Uncle Lucius glaring at her.

"You want to go back to the Muggle world?" He sounded astonished rather than angry but she still could not look at him. She focused on the daisy pattern on the carpet, watching how they fluttered in a magical breeze and counting the petals.

Her auntie sighed, then took her hand, rubbing it with her thumb. "Don't you like it here?" she asked softly.

"I do, but… I miss my mummy and daddy. And my school."

"It wasn't safe for you there, my dear. Don't you remember?"

"It was safe! I liked it there!" She pulled her hand away. Maybe this was the chance she was looking for. What if she threw herself on the ground and screamed to be taken home right now? She'd seen a boy throwing a tantrum like that in the supermarket once when he wanted sweets. A dragon ornament started to wobble on the mantelpiece but she knew Uncle Lucius had applied a Cushioning Charm to the fireplace to protect their expensive artefacts. Well, it was worth a go… Nervously her eyes darted around the sumptuous room as she planned the ideal spot for her tantrum.

"It wasn't really where you belonged, though, was it?" her foster father commented drily, shaking her out of her thoughts.

On second thoughts, maybe she would wait until he wasn't around. What if she was punished for it? He was angry with Draco sometimes and he was his real son so he would certainly be angry with her and she didn't want that.

"You hurt another child, Hermione. Yes, we heard about that. That's why they brought you to live with us, so you can learn how to control all those things," Auntie Cissa reminded her. She took out a handkerchief and wiped the child's eyes. "You're safe here, and always will be. We can put right any accidents you have with your accidental magic, remember, and teach you control exercises. We'll do some more today with my wand to give you a bit of practice; how does that sound?"

Hermione did not know what to say to any of this. Despite everything she was enjoying magic and this new world and didn't want the Malfoys to think she was ungrateful after taking her in and buying her all those nice things. She simply nodded, and Auntie Cissa squeezed her hand and asked her if she was worried about anything else. Hermione was not sure they would understand what public libraries were but she explained about her library books and Uncle Lucius assured her that they would get a message to her parents about them. He smiled a bit more than usual as he spoke to her and reminded her that there was an enormous library right here which she could visit later, after her exercises and that made her smile for the first time that day.

oOo

"Want another game, Draco?"

They were both fed up of being inside but the rain didn't show any sign of stopping any time soon and Draco was getting tired of losing Exploding Snap.

"Let's play something else," he suggested, searching among his substantial pile of board games. Neither of them could agree on what to play next. Hermione fancied Snakes and Ladders while Draco wanted a game of Goblin Wars and in the end they just sat at Draco's window watching the rain. All around them were damp looking fields and hedgerows with not even a chink of light showing through the clouds. Even the colourful gardens looked miserable today, with the rain splashing into the fountain. It was not a day for running away. And anyway, it was a silly idea. She was only five and what if she got lost or had to cross a dangerous road? She'd never been anywhere without an adult and couldn't imagine making her way to a strange place by herself. Still, it would be nice to make some other friends and get away from the Manor for a while.

"Draco, is there a village near here?"

He thought about it. "Yes, Stanbury. Think it's over there somewhere." He pointed towards the cluster of houses in the distance, although they were partly hidden by grey clouds and mist today. The church steeple was still just about visible, reminding her of the church she passed on her way to school every day.

"Are there any children there?"

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Haven't you ever been there?"

At this he stared at her. "Why would I ever go to a Muggle village?"

"It would be nice to find some other children to play with, wouldn't it?"

"No it wouldn't. They'd be Muggles, wouldn't they? Who wants to play with them?"

Hermione sat there in shock, hardly able to believe what she was hearing, as Draco jumped down off the window seat to set up his toy goblins for a pretend war.

"I'm a Muggle," she said eventually, "Well, sort of."

"No you're not. You have magic."

"Well, my parents are."

Draco looked up from his game and looked at her blankly.

"Yes, but you're not," he replied.

"Don't you like Muggles?"

He shook his head. "They have filthy blood."

"What does that mean?"

He shrugged, manipulating the wands of his action figures so that they were acting out a duel. "I don't know. It's just something Father says."

After that Hermione gave up and went back to her bedroom to find something else to do.

oOo

John and Mary eventually got a reply from the amateur historian who was investigating Wiltshire's missing manors but it seemed to raise more questions than it answered. He explained that Malfoy Manor had been one of the grandest houses in the county in the seventeenth century until it was destroyed by fire in 1692, at which point the Malfoy family had left the area, never to be heard of again.

"No they didn't," John muttered to his wife, who urged him to keep reading.

The burnt out shell was still there, but it was some distance from a main road and accessible only via a muddy track or across a field and nobody in the area could understand why the council hadn't pulled it down. There were very few contemporary references to the Manor but it seemed to have been a typical Anglo Norman manor house with turrets, a tiled roof and lattice windows with ivy growing around them.

He added that he would strongly advise against visiting the ruins themselves as there were strange stories and rumours in the area, stories of people going missing and turning up days later half out of their minds with fear but no memory of what had actually happened to them. Some people were local while others had gone missing in other parts of the country but all were found somewhere in the vicinity of the former Manor, rambling and terrified, sometimes bearing strange wounds on their bodies that never healed. Locals refused to go anywhere near it.

The Grangers did not like the sound of this. Further letters and phone calls over the next few weeks confirmed that it was a place of interest for various eccentrics in the area, who blamed the strange occurrences on everything from ghosts and UFOs to some kind of black magic. Only one victim, well known in the village for public drunkenness and tall tales, had any kind of memory of his ordeal. He reported being chased by two people, a man and a woman, "very posh and wearing old fashioned clothes", but could remember nothing else until he was woke the next morning in a ditch near the ruins, covered in burn marks. As time when on he thought he could remember falling over and the woman laughing at him, but that was about it, and the two mysterious people were never found. Regardless of the tales, their source added, there was something sinister about the place and it would be wise to stay away.

It felt like a dead end. There clearly was still a place called Malfoy Manor but how were they to find it? Was it invisible? And more importantly what kind of people were looking after their daughter?

oOo

Hermione and Draco were starting to learn magic under careful supervision. They could perform a Lumos spell which produced light at the end of their wands. As well as producing sparks and tiny flames they could make an object fly into their hand, with the Accio spell. Hermione had been doing this already without realising it of course but now she was getting much more precise with it. And they were starting to learn duelling too.

Hermione's accidental magic was becoming more focused and less scary as her time in the Manor went on. She found that the magic embedded in every inch of the Manor was somehow soothing her own, in ways she could not understand yet.

One thing she found was that she hated flying. Draco's toy broom only went about three feet off the ground but that was more than enough for her and she was happy to let him have the broom to himself. She enjoyed her lessons more than he did but being younger he was only with the tutor three days a week, which he seemed happy about as he was struggling a bit and resented that his foster sister often had to explain something to him. They mostly played well together but if he didn't want to share something Hermione would simply go off and play with her dolls or soft toys while he played by himself.

On a rare dry, bright day Hermione sat with her foster mother on the bench in front of the lawn while Draco whizzed around on his broom, out of the way of his father's latest meeting.

"Are you all right dear? You seem very quiet today."

She nodded, not really wanting to tell Auntie Cissa her worries again but at the same time knowing there was no-one else. "When is my next Visit?" she asked quietly.

"Are you sure you want another Visit so soon? You were very upset after the last one."

"Of course I do!" She didn't want to seem like she was answering back but the thoughts of not seeing her parents troubled her.

"Well, it'll be the end of this month although it falls between Christmas and New Year. I'll check the exact date."

She knew there was no point in asking to go home again but she did have another plan that might work.

"Auntie Cissa… I'm just wondering..." She kept her gaze on the ground, chewing on her lip.

"Yes?"

"Can…my parents come here, if I can't go home yet? Just for a little while, I mean?"

"Here? To Malfoy Manor?"

Now that she'd said it she realised how silly it sounded but there was no going back.

"They could drive here, in the car. They wouldn't need the Floo Network or anything. Please?" She hadn't seen a road leading up to the gate but surely there was somewhere to park the car? Her Auntie Cissa didn't answer for a long time but she looked deep in thought. Draco ran over, gushing about how fast he'd flown and the three of them walked around the grounds for a while, visiting the peacocks and enjoying the playground, with Auntie Cissa making the roundabout and the swings move by themselves. Soon after that it got too cold to be outside and they made their way back to the house, with Hermione walking beside her foster mother and Draco running ahead of them.

"Hermione, you know how I explained that this is a wizarding house and we dress a certain way and use magic for everyday tasks?"

The child nodded.

"Well, all that is part of our culture, a special magical culture, with its own rules and a way of doing things. And the Muggle world, the one your parents live in, has its own culture and different ways of doing things. For example, instead of using magic they use machines to do things, don't they?"

"Yes, like cars and washing machines."

"Exactly. And people in that world, well, they don't really understand our world, and to be honest, a lot of magical people don't understand the Muggle world either, myself included. We're just different to them, Hermione, that's why we don't live in that world or see Muggles very much. It would be hard for your parents to come here, for lots of reasons, and if they did, can you imagine how confused they would be? They were confused during your Visit, weren't they, and I only performed fairly simple spells."

"I know, but... I just don't understand…" She paused at the top of the gravel path, fiddling with her scarf and wishing she could explain better.

"What don't you understand, dear? Tell me what you're worried about."

"Why do I have magic and they don't? It isn't fair."

Auntie Cissa sighed. "No, I suppose it doesn't seem fair to you. Everyone in my family has magic so I just can't imagine what it's like for you. It happens sometimes although we're not really sure why. Maybe there was a witch or wizard in your family a long, long time ago?"

Hermione wasn't sure. She watched Draco run up to the front door, jealous that he could share his magic with his own parents and could live with them, without being sent off to someone else's house.

"Hermione, I know you miss them. I knew you would when you came here. They do seem like... well, nice people, I suppose. And I'm sure they love you and they can do things like feed and clothe you and simple things like that. But you see, they can't teach you about being a witch and all the things you should know before going to Hogwarts and they won't be able to teach you to play Quidditch or Wizarding Chess or bring you to Diagon Alley or all the things we can do for you. I'm sure they were scared when you started doing accidental magic."

Hermione nodded but she didn't really want to tell her foster mother about how worried they were or how they tried to stop her from doing all those strange things, which were increasingly less strange to her now when she stopped to think about it.

Just before they entered the house Auntie Cissa stopped and took Hermione's hands in hers. "I know it's been hard but you have us now," she told her gently.

"Mother, can we have hot chocolate?" Draco piped up, bringing both of them back to the present.

Soon the three of them were in front of a roaring fire drinking the most delicious hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows floating in it and flakes of chocolate on top. Hermione knew this was not really her home and wasn't sure it ever would be but she was going to work very hard on her magic and show them how good she could be at it. Perhaps one day she'd even be as good as her foster parents were but that day seemed a long way off. But maybe if she was able to control her magic completely she could go back home and her parents would be safe?

The thought comforted her as she gazed into the warm, comforting fire.