A/N: Thank you for your comments, kudos and bookmarks! Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter. A bit of a longer one for you today! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirteen and be on the lookout for chapter fourteen soon!
Smoothing her hands down the front of her dress, Hermione looked for any excuse to remain hidden away from the party that was going on downstairs at Grimmauld Place. Her hair was perfectly done by Walburga and her face was made up with a few tricks she'd picked up from Mallory. Her dress robes were the appropriate length and flattering. But, despite the lack of flaws, she still felt like the imposter that she was.
"Hermione? Is everything okay?" Regulus asked, popping his head into her room, not bothering to knock.
"What if I had still been getting dressed?" she chided him, turning around to face him.
"I would have had to gouge out my eyes, I'm sure," he teased, a smirk appearing on his face. "But, luckily, mother told me that you were already ready. That's why she sent me up here to check on what was taking you so long."
Hermione bit her lower lip. She had been avoiding the party for as long as she could, but now her absence had been noted. "I suppose I am just a little bit nervous," she said, telling him the truth for once. "This is the first time that I'm being officially presented as family to the wider society."
Walburga and Orion held an annual Yule party at their home and had decided that now was the best time to introduce her to all of their friends and acquaintances, not bothering to ask how she would like to be overwhelmed by fifty introductions to people she might already have memories of. She didn't do well in social situations and she knew that she would do even worse when she had to keep up this awkward pretense that she'd always been there.
"Don't worry too much," Regulus encouraged, walking towards her so that he could take her arm and coax her out of the safety of her room. "Besides, Bernie is already here. It's not like you don't know him anyway. There will be some friendly faces, I promise."
"Okay," Hermione agreed. "And if I need to get away for a little bit...?"
"You can come and find me," he agreed with a nod. "Just, take it easy on the drinks, right? The punch is super strong. I don't know what mum puts in it, but I threw up after sneaking into it when I was fourteen."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement. "I'll take it easy," she agreed, though she didn't like the way that he'd said it. Had Rabastan mentioned the way that she'd drunk a bit too quickly at the Quidditch after party?
Before they could talk about it more, Hermione realized that they were already well into the fray. Walburga noticed her immediately and waved her over to greet her brother Cygnus again. "Uncle Cygnus," she said with a tight smile, knowing that she might be living with him if Pollux had had his way. "Good to see you again."
"It seems that you do clean up under the right circumstances," he said, taking in her dress, before waving another witch over. "I believe you know my daughter, Bellatrix?"
Hermione felt all of her breath leave her in a rush when she came face to face with the witch who'd gotten her into this mess to begin with. A cold chill ran up her spine when Bellatrix looked her up and down disdainfully. "So this is the cousin?" she said, icily. "How can we be sure that she isn't a blood traitor?"
Affronted that she hadn't even been greeted by the other woman, Hermione felt herself stand up a little bit straighter. There wasn't anything wrong with not believing that purebloods were better, but she couldn't go off on a rant about it there or she might find herself kicked out and left to the wolves, like Sirius had been.
"Don't be ridiculous, Bella," Cygnus chided his daughter. "She's only just been welcomed into the family after being adrift for years. There is no way that she would do something to mess it up and have our protection taken from her."
She chanced a glance at Walburga to see how the other witch would react. It was no secret that Walburga and Orion had grown... fond of her, but she didn't think that they would keep her around if she acted less than perfect. She had a purpose to them as things stood — though she couldn't begin to imagine what that purpose was.
"Cygnus," Walburga seethed, staring down her much younger brother. "Don't presume to tell me what to do."
Wanting to get out of the situation as quickly as possible, Hermione saw Orion waving her over this time. "I'm sorry to have to cut this short, Uncle Cygnus," she said, hoping he could hear the insincerity dripping in her voice. "But, my father is asking for me."
Gliding over to Orion's side, Hermione realized that she'd just inadvertently hopped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Orion was speaking with Rodolphus Lestrange and his father — an equally imposing wizard called Edmund. There was no mistaking Rodolphus, though. He was just as large and as terrifying as she'd remembered him at the Department of Mysteries. She felt on edge, hating the way that her home was crawling with Death Eaters.
It was strange to see how different Rabastan and Rodolphus were, despite being brothers. Suddenly, she found Rabastan to be much more palatable.
Still, she smiled at the pair of the Lestrange wizards throughout their introductions to her. "I understand congratulations are in order," she said to Rodolphus. "That you will be marrying my cousin Bellatrix. I wish you every happiness."
They deserve each other, Hermione thought to herself, each of them tied by their slavish devotion to Lord Voldemort.
"Yes, Cygnus and Irma will have a very busy summer," Edmund agreed. "Narcissa will be marrying Abraxas's boy, too."
"Come, Edmund, Lucius has hardly been a boy for a decade now," Orion said with a chuckle.
Instinctively, Hermione looked around the party, searching for a hint of familiar white blond hair. If Rodolphus and Bellatrix were there, it would stand to reason that Lucius and Narcissa would be attending, too. For some reason, the thought of facing Lucius filled her with dread, like he might be the first person to see through her.
Before she could panic too much, Rabastan was walking over to his father's side, greeting Hermione with a crooked grin when his blue-green eyes found her. "Thank you for having me, Mister Black," he said, full of deference for Orion. "Hermione, good to see you out of Hogwarts."
She wanted to ignore him, until Orion gave her a pointed look that telegraphed he was not happy with her lack of manners. "Yes, happy Yule, Rabastan," she said, biting her lip. Her eyes were drawn to the way that he fiddled with his new silver signet ring on his forefinger — a gift he was very proud to receive when he'd come of age earlier that month.
"I forgot that the two of you must be familiar with one another, being in the same house," Orion said, apparently pleased that they were on speaking terms, though she could not begin to imagine why he would want her to cultivate relationships with wizards. Surely Regulus knew who it behooved the family to befriend and had things well covered in that arena.
"Excuse me, Mister Black," Bernard Rosier said, cutting into the conversation deftly. "I saw Hermione across the room and noticed that she did not have a drink. Would you allow me to remedy that?"
Hermione wanted to roll her eyes at Bernie, asking her father for permission to whisk her away, rather than addressing her directly, but she was not so naive to think that Orion didn't think that was the only way to approach the situation.
Orion looked Bernard Rosier up and down, his cruel mouth painted with a broad smile and his dark blond crop neatly styled for a change. But, there was no way that Orion could see through his facade and he didn't seem to care about her attempts to communicate with her eyes that she didn't particularly want to go. "Of course, Bernard. And tell your father that we missed him this evening," Orion said, with a nod of his head.
"You know, I fancy a drink as well," Rabastan said, with a big grin. "I think that I will join you."
Pursing her lips, Hermione wasn't sure how she was suddenly roped into spending time with two wizards who she would rather not. She looked around the room, hoping that Regulus would swoop in and rescue her, but she didn't see a sign of him anywhere.
Bernie was only too happy to wrap an arm around her waist, his hand feeling hot and oppressive even through her robes, and led her to the refreshments table before pouring her a glass of the punch and then one for himself. He left Rabastan to fend for himself and led her away from the third Slytherin towards a little alcove where they were less likely to be noticed by the party's stuffier guests. But, whatever Bernie's intentions were, Rabastan was close behind them.
"Glad you got me away from all that wedding talk, Bern," Rabastan said brightly, hiding a smirk behind his glass. "I swear it's all that mother talks about at home."
"Oh, maybe I should have left Granger to it," Bernard teased back. "I know witches usually eat that kind of shite up."
Hermione scrunched her nose. "I am not very interested in either of my cousins' weddings," she insisted, hopefully as charitably as she could. "And I am sure my own wedding will be far off in the future."
Bernard grinned back at her and took another step closer. "Well, at least you are realistic about it," he said, a rude undercurrent to his voice. "It's not like you are exactly on the same prestige level as Narcissa or even Bellatrix."
She took a huge gulp of the punch, hoping to stop herself from saying something stupid. "I thought you told me that people wanted me because I was mysterious and unknown," she countered, remembering the flirty way that he'd spoken to her after the Quidditch match.
"Well, yeah, for a snog, not for marriage," Bernie answered. Hermione suddenly felt like he was completely aware at how cruel his words were and wondered if he was doing it on purpose. To make her mad. "And besides, if father is right about you being a bastard, well, that's a big issue to overcome."
Hermione did her best not to react. It wasn't like she wanted to marry Bernard Rosier anyway. Hell, it wasn't like she wanted to kiss him either. But, if his attitude was the prevailing, she wondered if the Blacks hadn't damned her to a life of spinsterhood? She doubted that they'd be okay with her looking outside of a certain social class and if she did she'd be disowned, like all those other Black family members. Her heart clenched when she thought of Regulus. Would he throw her aside he she made a 'bad' decision, too?
"Fuck, don't listen to him, Hermione," Rabastan insisted. "Bernie's just salty about his own marriage prospects, being the third son of a second son. It's not like he's much of a catch himself."
She wasn't sure if Rabastan standing up for her made it worse or better, but she wanted to get away from them. "Can we just stop talking about marriages?" she pleaded. "We haven't even graduated Hogwarts yet. Surely this is not something we need to be worrying about."
"You're right, of course, Hermione," Bernie said, too indulgently. "Better to let our parents find matches for us, anyway."
Again, she took another drink to keep herself from saying something she really shouldn't, like she couldn't imagine Orion selecting a husband for her and if he thought he was going to he had another thing coming.
Rabastan noticed and he gently leaned in to her so that he could whisper into her ear. "Maybe you should slow down a bit," he suggested, softly, so that Bernie wouldn't overhear. "The punch is really strong."
Hermione was unable to stop herself from scoffing. She detested the way that Rabastan was talking to her like she couldn't handle herself, like she was incapable of understanding her own limits. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the memory of Regulus saying something similar made her bristle even more.
Bernie noticed her empty drink. "Looks like you need a refill Hermione," he said with a smug sort of look on his face. "Shall we remedy that?"
Jutting her chin in the air, Hermione was agreeing before she could catch up to the fact that that meant agreeing to do something with Bernard. "I think that sounds like a lovely idea," she said, hoping to let Rabastan know that she didn't need to be babied.
Bernie took her glass from her and led her to the bowl, where he poured her a hearty refill. Then, he pressed his arm around her waist again and led her towards the door to the back garden. "What do you say we go outside for a bit?" he asked. "It's getting a little stuffy in there after all."
Biting her lower lip, Hermione considered it, before deciding that a bit of air might do her good. She gave one lingering glance around the room, hoping to see Regulus once again, but there was no sign of her brother by the time that Bernie led her outside.
The back garden was chilly, but Bernie was quick with a light warming charm when they sat on the little bench underneath the barren black alder tree. The biting temperature did little to cut through the pleasant fog that seemed to have come over her mind, the longer that she had been at the party.
Before she realized it, Bernie had been nattering away about some sort of Wizengamot law that his father was working on (despite not holding the seat for the Rosier family) and her glass of punch was nearly gone once again. Her head began to feel heavy and full of fuzz and she could feel her body relax onto the strong body next to her. Bernie wrapped a heavy arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tighter to his side. She could feel him laughing through his chest.
"Salazar, Hermione, you really are a lightweight, aren't you?" he asked, his voice sounding like it was far away. "Don't worry. I can take care of you."
"'Dunno Bern," Hermione slurred, wondering why her voice sounded like it was underwater. "Should find..." Why were her thoughts so difficult to grab on to? It was like they slipped through her fingers when she tried to snag one.
"What was that, Hermione?" he asked.
"Regulus?" Hermione asked.
Regulus. She should find Regulus. Or Regulus should find her. But she was so tired and she could barely keep her eyes open. And with her head rested on Bernie's shoulder, she could almost go to sleep right there in the garden. His arm held her up and everything was so far away and she just wanted her bed. If she could just hold out and get to bed.
Sliding — warm — hands on her inner thighs? Caressing — up higher — calloused fingers. Petting her, encouraging her to open up her legs. What was happening?
Hands were grabbing her under her arms, pulling her up into standing and Hermione found herself swaying in front of Rabastan Lestrange. He was barking mad at someone, practically shouting at them, before putting Hermione's arm over his shoulders so he could help her walk in. Her legs felt like jelly.
"Come on, Hermione, in you go," he said softly, encouraging her up the stairs. "You are so stubborn, you know that? You go and do something just because someone tells you not to, not caring if I was just trying to warn you — trying to stop you from getting hurt."
"I'm not a child," she insisted, though she could tell just how petulant she sounded, even then.
"Yeah, let's get you to Regulus, then? Hopefully he can sneak you off to bed before your parents notice," he said softly.
Hermione nodded, thinking that she would feel better if she was with Regulus. Safer. Though, she felt pretty safe leaning on Rabastan, too.
Regulus met them at the backstairs and took Hermione from his friend. Rabastan had some hushed words for Regulus, including drunk, punch, Bernie and handsy. Regulus looked pale, but didn't scold her for being so foolish. Rabastan returned to the back garden, his wand hand flexing at his side.
Carefully, Regulus helped her up the stairs and into her room, though he declined to take her out of her formal robes and help her into her pajamas. "I suppose that's your punishment for not listening to me," he teased. When she was tucked into bed, he pressed a quick kiss to her brow. "I'll bring you a sober up potion in the morning, though you'll owe me, sister."
"G'night, Reg," Hermione mumbled, half asleep already.