The Romance
“So, eh, this is unusual, eh, for me,” the young man leading Narcissa and Hermione through the Botanic Garden at Cambridge University said.
“Yes, I understood we were to be meeting Professor Lockheed,” Narcissa answered.
“I’m sorry again, missus, he called me this morning to ask me to cover because he was distributing new plants to pots and touched something and had a reaction to it and had to go to hospital.”
“It’s fine, Colin. Really,” Hermione said kindly. “Narcissa and I are just hoping to still be able to see the same flora the professor was going to show us.”
“Yes, he left me his keys. He did say, though, that when we got to greenhouse eleven, I’m supposed to let you in, phone for Kenzie, and wait outside? I don’t know who Kenzie is and that is quite an unusual request but greenhouse eleven is restricted to students so I have to follow those orders, I suppose.”
“Perfect,” Narcissa smiled, showing no teeth. “Let’s begin then, shall we?”
As the women followed the Graduate Assistant through the greenhouses, Narcissa leaned close to her fiancée to whisper, “I’m sorry I’m so cranky about this, Hermione. It simply isn’t what I had planned at all. Had I known there wouldn’t be a member of our community guiding us through the plant life we were here to specifically see, I wouldn’t have made you come.”
“One second, Colin,” Hermione said to the man ahead of them. When he turned to look at them, Hermione stepped closer to a display of roses with Narcissa, looking to Colin like all she wanted was a romantic moment with her partner - and, in some ways, that was true. She spoke quietly, “Narcissa, listen to me. Regardless of whether or not we’re able to see magical plants here today, we can still enjoy our time together. You’ve booked us a guided, private afternoon stroll through beautiful, lush gardens filled with exotic flowers. This is the most romantic date anyone’s ever going to take me on. We aren’t going to have days upon days to spend like this forever. Eventually I’m going to be busy working toward my NEWTs and then I’m going to hopefully be working at the Ministry. You’ve just found out you have all these business holdings you have your hands in and they, too, will require your attention. Let’s just enjoy all this time we have to be together. Whatever we’re doing, wherever we are, I’m glad to have my hand in yours for the afternoon.”
Her cheeks pinking, Narcissa pressed her forehead to Hermione’s, “All the spirits and Morgana, Hermione, you can’t say things like that in front of other people. Now all I want to do is kiss you in a way that is decidedly not appropriate for a public venue.”
Hermione smiled just a bit and pressed a nearly chaste kiss to Narcissa’s pout. As she laced her fingers back through Narcissa’s and tugged the woman’s arm to follow along behind Colin once again, she said, “Narcissa, that is the most interesting turn of phrase I’ve ever heard. Where did you come up with that?”
“I don’t know,” Narcissa laughed, allowing Hermione to drag her along, “I think one of my sisters used to say it.”
Hermione just chuckled and rolled her eyes, securing her right hand in Narcissa’s left and wrapping her own left hand around Narcissa’s elbow. The women followed Colin as he walked them through the greenhouses, taking note of flowers they particularly liked and just enjoying the romantic atmosphere and time with one another.
“Hmm, do you think...you know...never mind. I...I’m going to keep that thought to myself for now.”
“What? No! Now you have to tell me!”
Narcissa laughed just a bit before she pressed a kiss to the head of the woman next to her. “I was going to ask a question about a flower I was thinking of for my bouquet. However, I don’t know that...what I mean to say is that I don’t feel…”
“Narcissa?” Hermione asked quietly, bringing their joined hands up to her mouth to place a kiss on Narcissa’s knuckles.
“Yes,” Narcissa answered piteously.
“What’s going on? We’ve had some pretty intense conversations in the past week for hours at a time and I haven’t heard you like this before. Everything okay?”
Narcissa just smiled a little smile at the other woman and spoke up to the young man still walking ahead of them, “Colin?”
“Yes, missus?”
“This is the greenhouse with the experimental bioluminescent flowers, yes?”
“Right, wanna see?” The woman nodded at his grin. “Okay, I’m going to lock the entry, push the button to close the special blinds, and shut the lights. Just be careful, it’s black as pitch in here. When you’re ready, give me a shout and I’ll turn the lights back on.”
After Colin bounced away back to what the women realized was the only door in or out, Narcissa whispered, “follow me” and led Hermione down a nearly hidden walkway underneath an overhanging of ivy.
“Turning the lights out!” Colin shouted.
The greenhouse was immediately drenched in darkness and Hermione took an instinctive step closer to Narcissa. Before her eyes could begin to adjust, she realized the ivy near her was taking on its own glow, the veins in the leaves slowly appearing before her. Hermione’s gaze followed the trail of ivy up and she gasped as she saw what looked like lilies glowing above her.
“How is this possible without magic?”
“Science,” Narcissa said. “This is the experimental greenhouse. The University of Cambridge is one of the top universities in the world; brilliant people study, research, and teach here. This particular greenhouse is filled with pet projects of some of those researchers. There truly are bioluminescent lilies growing above us...but they haven’t been able to replicate the experiment anywhere else. If you take a cutting and attempt to relocate it, the cutting dies.”
“This is amazing,” Hermione looked around, her arms secure on Narcissa’s shoulders. “Can we walk around a bit?”
“Very carefully, it really is nearly pitch black. The only light is from the plants. Though, interestingly enough, the longer we keep the lights off the brighter it will get in here...for about twelve hours. Then it holds steady for a while. Eventually, though, the plants need more sunlight for energy.”
“Have you been in here that long? More than twelve hours? With whom?”
Narcissa smirked at the hint of jealousy she thought she heard, “I haven’t, no. Lucius would never allow me to be away from Malfoy Manor for that long. Professor Lockheed told me that once.”
Hermione hummed and wrapped her arm around Narcissa’s waist as they slowly made their way along the path. “Oh, Narcissa! Look at the honeysuckle! The way the light moves is amazing,” Hermione was captivated. “This is incredible.” Hermione reached out a hand to touch the petal of the nearest honeysuckle flower when Narcissa stopped her.
“Hermione - you mustn’t! None of these flowers should be touched. Not only could we damage their fragile ecosystem but we haven’t a clue what they could do to us. They aren’t completely natural, remember?”
“Of course, that makes sense. They’re just so incredible I wasn’t thinking. I remember…”
“What, darling?” Narcissa asked, following Hermione to a little pond further down the path.
“Look at those lily pads, the way they sparkle,” she said distractedly. Sighing, she answered the question, “I remember once, when I was little, my parents took me on vacation somewhere near the ocean. I...I don’t remember where it was specifically anymore, I was so young, maybe four years old, but I know we were in Australia. We were sitting on the end of a pier at night after a full day of being at the beach and flying kites and playing. We walked out and watched the sunset. As we sat on that pier and watched the water, it started to glow. I was convinced it was mermaids. I vaguely recall my father trying to explain bioluminescent algae.”
“What a lovely memory,” Narcissa stepped behind Hermione, wrapping her arms around Hermione’s waist and bending her head down to place a kiss beneath Hermione’s ear.
“What were you trying to say to me earlier when you couldn’t find the right words?” Hermione whispered. “Please tell me.”
“I was going to say something about a bouquet flower for the wedding but I think I’d prefer if we could wait on that conversation. I have some thoughts about our bouquets, darling but we have some time before those decisions must be made,” Narcissa explained, settling her hands on Hermione’s hips and turning the younger woman in her arms so they could kiss properly.
“Hmm, you are a woman of mystery. I’ll just have to remember which flowers I liked from today, I suppose?”
“Or we’ll have to come back? Or tour another Botanic Garden? The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland are beautiful. Oooh, or the Jardin botanique de la Ville de Paris, I love it.”
“Oh, gosh, no. Another romantic trip to Paris with my romantic fiancée to spend hours roaming a romantic French botanic garden to choose flowers for the bouquets for our wedding...what a hardship. Woe is me,” Hermione snorted. “Kiss me, you silly woman.”
Narcissa, laughing, gave in to Hermione’s demand. “Hardship indeed,” she teased back, pinching Hermione’s side. “Colin,” she called out, a little louder, “I think we’re ready to head out to greenhouse eleven if we may.”
“Sure thing, missus. I have to turn the lights on slow, so it’s gonna take a minute if you want to keep walking ‘round.”
“Come this way,” Narcissa murmured into Hermione’s ear once more, pulling her down a barely visible path, “I think this is where the...yes.” The smile was evident in Narcissa’s voice, “Edelweiss grows back here.”
“Edelweiss? Isn’t that native to the Alps? How did they manage to have this many plants from this many regions all growing in one greenhouse. Doesn’t anyone else find that suspicious?”
“Darling, think about it. The plants in this greenhouse glow. You’re looking at glowing Edelweiss. Do you really think people are concerned about the native temperate conditions when the plants in here have been bred for bioluminescence?”
“Okay, fair point.”
“Now, can you just walk with me through this shimmering tunnel of Edelweiss and Bellflowers before the lights are fully on? Please?” Narcissa smirked once more but broke into a happy smile when Hermione’s fingers laced through hers.
“I’d be delighted.” Once they were in the middle of the tunnel of flowers, Hermione looked around and noticed the way the light gently pulsated. “Narcissa, do you think the plants in here react to our magic?”
“That’s something I’ve been studying for years, actually. Where does our magic come from? Does nature feed off of us or the other way around?”
“This is incredible,” Hermione said softly. “Look at the way the light is moving...swirling in and back out. It’s almost playing with us.” Hermione reached toward the flowers, quietly whispering, “lumos.” She dragged the word out and the flowers nearest her hand lit up brightly, sending their light outward through stems and leaves. “Nox,” she whispered, watching the opposite happen. “Finite.”
Narcissa and Hermione looked at one another with wide, amazed eyes as the flowers began swirling their lights slowly around the women again.
“Muggle magic,” Hermione said.
“Exactly,” Narcissa agreed, smiling.
They met for yet another kiss beneath the slowly swirling luminescence of the Bellflowers and Edelweiss. Hermione slid her hands over Narcissa’s shoulders and cupped the back of the taller woman’s neck, holding her in place. Nipping Narcissa’s bottom lip, Hermione took their kiss from sweet to passionate and felt Narcissa’s answering groan deep inside. Narcissa in response, grasped Hermione’s hips and lifted her to sit on the guard rail, stepping between her legs.
Hermione, now slightly higher than Narcissa, locked her ankles behind the other woman to hold her close. Their heated kisses were intensifying the floral light around them, though neither woman noticed. Feeling something on her head, Narcissa slowly tamped down the passion rising between them. She looked up only to realize some of the Bellflower petals had begun to drop onto them, Hermione’s hair was sprinkled with the purple bits of flower.
“We broke the flowers, Cissa,” Hermione said, in awe.
“I suppose we did. Or perhaps they were showering us in preparation of our upcoming nuptials,” she wiped a smudge of lipstick away from the corner of Hermione’s swollen lips. “We should go find Colin before he comes looking for us.”
“Does that mean I have to let go of you?” Hermione asked, leaning back in to press her lips to Narcissa’s once more.
“Yes, my lion, you have to get down from there,” Narcissa met Hermione’s lips but kept the kiss gentle and calm, a cooling of the ardor that had so quickly risen.
Hermione kissed her way to Narcissa’s ear to whisper, “but I like having you here, having my arms around you, holding you close. If I let you go now, we’re going to go home and I’m going to have to sleep in my cold, lonely bed and only hold you in my dreams.”
“Fight fair, darling. It’s barely been a week. And we aren’t going home just yet. Take a walk with me through the last greenhouse, it’s the magical one.” Narcissa leaned back in Hermione’s arms so she could make eye contact with the younger woman, “please.”
Hermione smiled and cupped Narcissa’s cheek, “I would love to stroll through another greenhouse with you. Any more surprises?”
Narcissa chuckled and helped Hermione down safely from the rail, “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“No more bioluminescent flowers? No more Narcissus?” Hermione tickled the other woman’s side.
Narcissa jumped and grasped Hermione’s hand in her own, “Okay, the second thing you just mentioned was not entirely my fault. I told you, I thought you were just being cute at first, then I was embarrassed. But no, no more bioluminescent surprises. In fact, you’ll likely be more knowledgeable about this last greenhouse than I am. Herbology was never my favorite.”
“Neither was it mine,” Hermione confessed.
“What was?” Narcissa asked as they followed Colin out of greenhouse ten and down a cobblestone path.
“Professor McGonagall’s class, of course,” Hermione smirked.
“Of course,” Narcissa smirked back, knowing they both alluded to the crushes many students developed on their favorite teachers. “Mine was, hmm,” Narcissa didn’t want to use the professor’s name, knowing it was so odd, she hoped Hermione would understand her reference, “chemistry?”
“Ah, yes. I could see you being excellent in chemistry. Precise yet room for creativity.”
Narcissa snapped her head to the side, surprised at Hermione’s comment. That was exactly why she had always preferred Professor Slughorn’s Potions classes; one was required to follow a precise recipe but there was often room for a bit of creativity in the application of an ingredient or the use of a tool. Hermione leaned very close to her fiancée’s ear to whisper once more, “Narcissa, it may have only been barely a week but never in my life have I known someone the way I feel I know you.”
“Three months, one week, and five days.”
“But who’s counting.”
Colin interrupted what would likely have resulted in yet another kiss, “Ladies, I’ll unlock greenhouse eleven for you. When you step inside there should be a phone...I guess...for you to call, eh, Kenzie? Do you have a number?”
“I do,” Narcissa said, stepping forward. “Thanks, Colin. Will it lock behind us when we leave?”
“It will but Professor Lockheed said to tell you to remind Kenzie and she’ll make sure eleven’s all locked up. He said not to worry about it at all. So, eh, I hope you enjoyed the greenhouses today?”
“We did, thank you ever so much,” Hermione answered, reaching out to shake his hand.
Narcissa, however, pulled an envelope out from a hidden pocket of her jacket and handed it to Colin. “Thank you for the tour. Please let Professor Lockheed know we really appreciated your time. Greenhouse ten was incredible, thank you so much for sharing that with us.”
“Oh! Thanks, missus!” Colin said happily, realizing the envelope held a tip for him. “Enjoy this one!”
Narcissa and Hermione waited for him to walk away before stepping into greenhouse eleven themselves. “I’m sure I don’t need to warn you to be careful in here, Hermione. This greenhouse is definitely filled with harmful plant life. I see a Devil’s Snare right in front of us.”
“Narcissa?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re here to be together, yes?”
“Well, yes…”
“But, also, to select flowers for our wedding?”
“Right…”
“What do you think about decorating with Edelweiss, White Honeysuckle, and Bellflowers?”
Narcissa was quiet for a moment, clearly lost in thought. “And we can each choose our own bouquets also based on those colors? White and purple?”
“Mmhmm...is that okay?”
“Perfect,” Narcissa’s blue eyes, filled with tears, met Hermione’s brown. “Hermione?”
“Yes?”
“I...I’m not quite sure why but making this decision together felt like a momentous occasion to me,” Narcissa sniffled.
“I…I know what you mean,” Hermione answered, wrapping her arms around Narcissa in a very tight hug.
“Would you like to come back to Black Manor for supper? Something light, maybe?”
“I would. I don’t really need to see the magical plants in here. I’m happy to have selected the muggle plants that are meaningful to us. This was another wonderful day together, Narcissa.”
As they kissed, Narcissa Apparated them just outside the gates of Black Manor.
“Is it terrible that I don’t actually want to start working on my NEWTs or working at all? I just want to spend every day having wonderful, romantic adventures with you. Seeing the world. Experiencing new things. Enjoying you,” Hermione held on to Narcissa as they meandered through the garden before making their way inside.
“Not terrible at all. I know I shouldn’t but I want the same thing. I think it’s only natural. This...hmmm...relationship between us is so very new and heady and...exciting, that we both just want to keep experiencing it. One day, though, it won’t be new. We’ll wake up and just...say good morning and go about our day and it’ll be old hat.”
“Nope,” Hermione shook her head.
“No? You don’t think so?”
“Sorry, Narcissa. I think you’re absolutely brilliant but about this one thing, you’re dreadfully wrong. Waking up next to you, no matter how many times I get to do it, will never, ever become old hat. Not when your blue eyes are the first thing I’ll get to see,” Hermione said, as if she were stating an incontrovertible fact, a law everyone knew.
Narcissa’s jaw fell open. “Hermione,” she said, “you. You’re young, darling, you don’t know.”
“I do, Narcissa. I know this. You’re brilliant and you’re wonderful. I’ll never tire of you. Maybe I’ll get bored of greenhouse ten or someday I won’t want to take a ride across the English Channel but I’ll never stop wanting to look into your eyes.”
Those eyes spilled over with tears as Narcissa pressed her forehead to Hermione’s. She didn’t believe the younger woman, not for a second. Oh, she knew Hermione thought she meant it. She knew Hermione believed those words...but eventually time would prove differently. Narcissa would fight it off, though. She would push that time away for as long as she could. No one in her life had ever spoken to her the way Hermione did.
“Oh, my brave lion, I’ll never last three more months,” Narcissa laughed.