You might have noticed I originally uploaded Chapter 4 again by mistake - sorry about the confusion. This is the correct chapter.
When Hermione woke the next morning she couldn't remember where she was for a moment. Then it all came back to her. She was in Malfoy Manor, living with the Malfoy family and learning about the magical world. For a moment her heart ached, thinking of her own, smaller bedroom at home with her toybox in the corner and her storybooks on the shelves, all waiting for her.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Twinkle entered a little shyly.
"Does the little miss need any help in getting dressed?" she asked.
"No thank you, Twinkle, I can manage," she told the little elf with a grin. Twinkle bowed and left the room, but Hermione could hear her soft footsteps on the carpet and found herself wondering where the house elves slept and when they had got to bed last night. Did they have to clean this huge house by themselves?
It was hard to leave the soft, comfortable bed but she was determined to be on time for breakfast and find out what they were going to do today. She opened the wardrobe door and looked at her new robes but her gaze was soon drawn to the clothes her mummy had packed for her yesterday. Taking down her pink jumper, she buried her head in the soft material, wondering if she could smell her bedroom from it. With a little bit of fumbling she put on her jeans, t-shirt and jumper, along with a pair of fresh socks and underwear. It still felt like an accomplishment to dress herself but she was glad she knew how to do it, especially as she could hear Twinkle trying to persuade a sleepy Draco to get up and guessed that it might take her a while.
Putting on her cosy new slippers she made her way on the landing and towards the stairs, trying to remember the way from last night. On the next floor those portraits were staring at her, muttering among themselves. One word stood out, a word she'd never heard before: Mudblood...
It was the smell of cooking that distracted her, leading her downstairs and towards a huge oak door with panels in it and she remembered the dining room where she'd eaten that big dinner. She stepped inside, wondering what they ate for breakfast in the wizarding world. Mr and Mrs Malfoy must have been just ahead of her as they were already sitting at the table. Mrs Malfoy was enjoying a cup of tea but Mr Malfoy saw her come in and his smile soon turned to a glare. He cleared his throat, making his wife look up then nodded towards Hermione.
In a moment, Mrs Malfoy was on her feet and hurrying to Hermione's side.
"Hermione, dear," she began gently, but firmly, "Where are the robes I bought you yesterday?"
She looked down. Suddenly her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth. "I...I... they're... I thought…"
"Narcissa, take her back upstairs, please," Mr Malfoy told her, a little sharply.
Her foster mother held out her hand. "Come along, Hermione, let's go back up to your bedroom and get you dressed properly."
The child kept her head bowed, but she nodded, still unable to speak. Everything was going wrong, even when she tried to be as little trouble as possible.
"This is a wizarding house," Mrs Malfoy explained as they headed back upstairs, "So we wear robes here as part of our culture and tradition and also when we go out to places within our world. These are now your traditions too. The only time we wear Muggle clothes, like the ones you brought with you, is when we go to a Muggle area but we don't do that very often. Also, foster children are asked to bring some clothes with them in case their new families don't get a chance to bring them shopping, but we did, so you have some lovely robes to wear."
In the bedroom, she took the robes out of the wardrobe, showed Hermione how to put them on properly and gushed about how well she looked. But the child didn't pay much attention. All her new found resolve seemed to vanish and she felt like a baby again. With a sigh, Mrs Malfoy sat on the bed and indicated the space next to her with an elegant gesture. Hermione sat obediently, a little worried about creasing her new outfit.
"We want you to be happy here," Mrs Malfoy told her gently. "I thought you understood yesterday that you're part of this world now too but I suppose I forgot how new this all is to you. But we'll teach you, all three of us, don't you worry."
"I think... I think Mr Malfoy was cross with me."
She leaned in towards her conspiratorially. "He is a bit grumpy, isn't he?" Hermione nodded, smiling a little. "But he wants the best for you too. He just doesn't express it very well. And "Mr Malfoy" is a bit formal. Maybe you could try calling him Uncle Lucius? And most people call me Cissie or Cissa so maybe you could call me Auntie Cissa?"
Hermione swallowed but managed to nod in response.
"That's better. Now, shall we go back downstairs? Dobby will heat up your breakfast for you."
"All right. Thank you," Hermione's voice was a whisper as her new auntie led her back down the stairs.
"You won't need your old clothes today," she explained, "There'll be more trips to Diagon Alley for new things, of course. Maybe we could go together in a few days, just the two of us? Would you like that?"
"Yes, thank you, Mrs Mal- I mean, Auntie Cissa."
Back in the dining room she faced the gaze of the whole family as Draco was now sitting at the table too.
"Crisis averted," Mrs Malfoy told her husband, squeezing his shoulder as she passed him, "Now, Hermione, you sit next to me and we'll have some breakfast. Dobby!"
Hermione had hoped for bacon and eggs but instead some kind of fish was served, along with toast and orange juice and she did her best to eat it. She'd never had fish for breakfast before but the family seemed to think this was normal. There were so many things she didn't know yet. Maybe she wouldn't be able to leave here until she knew everything?
There was a tour of the grounds immediately after breakfast and Draco led the way happily, running ahead to the lake where a squid lived somewhere in the depths, "not as big as the one at Hogwarts", apparently, along with other strange creatures. He showed her the peacocks, although they were disappointed not to see their colourful tails, and then ran towards the thing he seemed most proud of: his very own playground.
"Well, it's Hermione's now too, remember?" his mother reminded him.
Nonetheless, both children were glad to play for a while on the swings, slide, roundabout and climbing frame while Mrs Malfoy watched from a bench with flowers engraved on it. Nobody minded when she jumped off the swing and floated, in fact she learned that day that she levitated, rather than floated, and that it was a very normal part of accidental magic.
After a while, Mrs Malfoy showed her around the rose garden with great pride, and the herb garden where all kinds of herbs and plants were grown for use in the house. She promised to teach Hermione all about these plants and to show her the small potions laboratory in the Manor.
"You'll be learning all about potions at Hogwarts but you'll get a head start here. You won't have your own wand yet but you'll be learning about magic and very simple spells before you go," Mrs Malfoy explained as her son ran on ahead, back to the house.
Hermione had enjoyed the playground but there was still so much she needed to get her head around. She was a witch, not a freak, and now she was part of an exciting new world. If only her parents could stay here too. She imagined them standing at one of the windows, waving to her, wishing she could run inside and tell them everything.
oOo
That night, with both children in bed the Malfoys relaxed in front of their roaring fire, enjoying the peace and quiet. With a flick of Lucius' wand two glasses were filled with elf-made wine.
"Thank you, dear," Narcissa told him, levitating her own glass over to her hand carefully, remembering how much practice it had taken her to do this spell without spilling anything.
"Well, that day seems to have gone fairly well. And with Professor Abbott starting tomorrow, Draco will have a bit more structure to his day. Hermione seems to be fairly intelligent, according to the Relocation Office so hopefully we won't have any problems with her education-wise."
Narcissa was quiet for a while, just gazing into the fire and quietly thinking. "Lucius, I wonder if we should have made such a fuss this morning, about the Muggle clothes I mean? It's only her first full day in the wizarding world, after all, and I've heard some foster families allow the children to wear their own clothes for the first week or two."
Lucius put his glass down. "The whole point of bringing her here was to teach her about this world, both by education and example. She needs to know about her traditions right from the start, before she gets to Hogwarts. Some of the Mudbloods there are starting to wear their own clothes outside of lessons and we need to dissuade her from that sort of thing while she's still young."
Narcissa sighed. "You're probably right, dear. She just looked so...sad."
"If Bellatrix was here she probably would have incendio'd that outfit on the front lawn."
She scowled at him, unable to believe he'd bring up such a sore subject. "Yes, well she isn't here, is she?"
Her husband took another sip of his wine, seemingly unaffected by his wife's tone. "You're going to have to take more of a role in her upbringing. You can't leave everything to Twinkle. Although, I've had a word with her – she really should have noticed Hermione wasn't dressed correctly."
"I know. We'll be spending a lot of time together, maybe a shopping trip or two, while you show Draco around the Ministry, perhaps?"
"Yes, that sounds agreeable. Well, maybe avoid Diagon Alley around Halloween..." He shot her a meaningful look.
"It's been three years; they're hardly going to have flags and bunting out."
"I should hope not. Still, there might be gossip and little ears can hear things. We need to be careful about the people she mixes with."
Both of them lapsed into silence for a little while, sipping their wine and listening to the crackling of the fire.
"Just think, that child's going to be starting Hogwarts at the same time as Draco and Hermione," Narcissa remarked.
"Don't remind me. He'll probably be a Gryffindor, like his parents. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, as the Muggles say. And for now, I think I shall retire to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow."
oOo
Alone in her bedroom, Hermione tried to fall asleep. She'd heard the Malfoys retiring to their bedroom on the floor below, first Uncle Lucius, then Auntie Cissa and not long after that a great silence had descended on the vast house. She was glad she had cleaned her teeth, like her parents had taught her, but that just made her want her home even more. Tomorrow she and Draco would be starting lessons and she could not help wonder what they would be learning and what it would be like to have lessons here in the Manor.
She thought of her desk at school and how her chair would be empty tomorrow. Her friend Amy would have no-one to play with at break time. Maybe somebody else would play with her? Or they might tease her about being friends with a freak; she hoped not but she wasn't sure. She thought about Miss Johnson and all the things she would miss, like story time and the jigsaw puzzle with the picture of a ginger cat on it that she'd made the day before she came here.
And as she clutched her doll in the darkness, she wondered if she would ever go home.