Mirror Image

Pansy called on Draco and Theo as soon as she got her invitation. They didn’t have much warning - the Floo lit up for a moment, and Draco called for Theo to join him in the Library for whoever it was, and then Pansy had stepped through still in her pajamas. Her invitation to the wedding was clutched in her hands, so her reason for visiting was pretty clear.

“Make yourself at home,” Draco drawled, watching Pansy as she threw the invitation onto the couch and then herself.

“Don’t be glib with me, Dray,” she snapped. “You and Theo have been keeping so many secrets!”

“Nothing was a secret,” Theo said. “It’s common for people to hide early arrangements.”
“Not from their friends,” Pansy said. “You two never said anything to us about being together.”

“Because you would have accepted Hermione so easily?”

Pansy leveled Theo with a look. “You could have told us you two were together. You didn’t have to bring her into it. Though really, you could have given us all a heads up. Do you know how many questions my parents had about this? I had no idea what to say about the little lioness being a part of this trio.”

Theo and Draco hadn’t thought about it. In all truth, beyond Thoros, they hadn’t thought much about what other Purebloods would think about the arrangement. Of course there would be idle gossip, there always was when it came to Pureblood circles. They just hadn’t thought about it much, and they hadn’t expected Pansy to have such an explosive reaction.

They thought Hermione’s agreement to be in an arrangement alone would mollify the other Purebloods. Hindsight being what it was, they could see they had been wrong.

“She is…” Theo trailed off, looking over at Draco.

“She is more Pureblood than some,” Draco said. “Blaise was surprisingly accurate in his reading of Hermione’s article.”

Pansy’s eyebrows jumped. Theo and Draco rushed to defend Hermione, telling story after story of how she had mastered Blood magic, how she was smart and thoughtful and how they loved her, how she was a strong advocate for wizarding purity. Pansy only rebutted their stories with the fact that Hermione was a Mudblood. Before she could get too far, they were interrupted by the Floo yet again, this time spitting out Blaise and, strangely, Gregory Goyle.

Draco and Theo were good hosts, even with their lovely Hermione off with the Weasleys for the weekend and their friends grilling them about their arrangement. As Pansy closed her arguments and Blaise started in about his finely honed skills of observation and how he knew something about Hermione Granger was off, Theo and Draco called for and served tea. It was only when Lucius and Narcissa stopped in to offer their polite greetings and gush about how smart and thoughtful Hermione was, about how much they looked forward to having her and Theo a part of the family, about how pleased they were for Draco’s match that Pansy, Blaise, and Greg backed off the issue.

It was hard to be open with their relationship, even among those few people they had known their whole life. It was only half to do with the severe dressing down their friends had just given them and more to do with habit. After years of skirting one another, and a solid 12 months of hiding their romantic interest, it felt wrong to reach across the chaise to hold hands. Never mind they normally spent their afternoons in the chaise in one another’s lap, the smallest show of affection was suddenly revealing and wrong.

Theo fared easier than Draco, standing to pour himself a second cup of tea and pressing a kiss to Draco’s hair.

Draco struggled more, his hands twitching even clasped within Theo’s.

“So where is the Mudblood?” Pansy asked. Draco rolled his eyes.

“She is with the Weasley’s this weekend,” Theo said. “She spends time with them every summer.”

Blaise let out a laugh. “Oh, yes, I assume she had to deliver their invitations.” It was said like a joke, but his voice held too much joy in someone else’s discomfort to be so. “Shouldn’t you two be preparing a medical kit?”

“It’s not funny,” Draco said, low and hard. “Mya can’t be expected to throw her life away for another one at the drop of a hat. She is going to be our wife, but we won’t be her jailers. If she decides to tell them, it will be on her own terms and we will always be here to pick up the pieces.”

“What a rousing speech,” came a new voice from the Library doors. It was Toma, looking relaxed in a pair of almost certainly stolen joggers and a loose tee shirt. He didn’t address the other Slytherins, just stared at Theo. “Thoros requests our presence at dinner tonight. He said we’ve been playing house for too long.”

Draco let out a sigh. “I’ll inform Mother and Father?”

Theo dragged himself up and out of the chaise and stooped to press a kiss to Draco’s lips. It was open, wet, and passionate, and when Theo pulled away, Draco chased him for a split second before remembering they had guests.

“Theodore!”

“I’m off to change and pack,” Theo said calmly. He pressed a second kiss to Draco’s lips, just as hard but quicker. “That one is for Mya when she gets back. Don’t pout, in two weeks time, we’ll never have to think about my dear old dad ever again.”

~~~

As soon as Hermione disappeared out of sight in the green flames of the Floo, Ron turned to Harry and the two of them climbed the steps to their shared room, silent except for the polite “excuse me” they each gave to Percy halfway up. Harry fell onto his bed with a harsh thump, and Ron took the time to latch and lock the door, then put up a silencing spell.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “It wasn’t bad.”

“It wasn’t good,” Ron countered. Hermione’s trip had been punctuated with bizarre moments. She’d snuck off with Fred and George for all of the day just after arriving, and when they all returned for dinner, they were laughing and joking as though they were better friends than even Harry and Ron. Hermione’s mood had notably soured overnight, and Harry and Ron had both been a little more than perturbed when Hermione began to sniffle over breakfast the following morning, and not even their cajoling could brighten her mood. It wasn’t until Fred and George, who seemed to know precisely why she was upset, gave her soft smiles and squeezes to the shoulder, and whispered she'd "be home soon" that she finally got out of her stupor.

Hermione didn’t speak of her parents or her aunt, instead changing the subject as soon as her family was brought up.

And the article. Hermione’s article in the newspaper had been strange. It was a far cry from her detailed piece the term before when Hermione had railed against Umbridge and her tyrannical treatment of students. That one had been about education - Hermione’s pet issue - and it had made sense. But the article run in the Prophet last week about Pureblood traditions had been unexpected. It had been more than that - it had been concerning.

“She has to have been talking to someone,” Harry mused. “A traditional Pureblood.”

“It’s that Toma kid,” Ron seethed. “It has to be. He’s related to that Nott bloke.”

Harry hummed. “They’ve been spending a lot of time together,” he conceded. “But spending time with someone is different from signing yourself up for an arranged marriage. And did you see how quiet she was at breakfast when the twins got their invitation?”

Ron snapped his fingers as his face grew red and hot. “Do you think that was it?”

“What?”

“Do you think she’s gotten herself mixed up in some kind of arranged marriage?” Ron asked. It was a ridiculous, impossible thought. Hermione Granger, Muggle-born witch and Gryffindor to the heart, arranged to be married to some poncey Pureblood? It just wasn’t real. “Think about it,” Ron went on. “She’s hanging around a Nott at school. She publishes some kind of article on why she’d be honored to be chosen for an arranged marriage. Fred and George get an invitation to an engagement party and won’t tell anyone who it was for. Doesn’t that seem a little barmey to you?”

“Coincidental, maybe,” Harry conceded. “But Hermione? She would have told us if something was going on. Why would she be getting married and not tell us?”

“Because she knew we wouldn’t approve,” Ron said. “Would you really be okay with her marrying someone like Toma Grozdanov?”

Harry choked on his own spit as he sat up. “You think she’s marrying Grozdanov?”

“Who else?” Ron said, throwing his hands up. “He’s the only Pureblood snake we know she spends regular time with at school.”

“He’s not a snake,” Harry argued, but it sounded half-hearted even to his own ears. “And he’s half-blood.”

“He’s got Nott blood, and that’s good as,” Ron said. “He’s a Death Eater in the making.”

“Maybe,” Harry said, falling back on the bed. “Maybe.”

~~~

Hermione woke the day of her bonding ceremony surprisingly well-rested. She hadn’t been woken by Narcissa in the early hours of the morning, a stark difference from the day they had signed the contract to begin with. Instead, she woke as the sun crept up the sky. She was alone, aside from Crookshanks at her feet, and for a minute, she savored stretching and the feeling of her sheets on her bare legs.

“Hinky?” she called, when she was ready to wake up for the day. A house elf appeared in the room, a respectful distance from the bed. “Would you ask Narcissa to come and see me?”

The house elf twisted and disappeared with a pop , just as quick as she’d appeared, and it was just a couple moments before Hermione heard the tell-tale knock of someone at the door. Narcissa didn’t wait for an answer before she pushed her head into the room. Hermione pushed herself up in bed and beckoned Narcissa in with a wave of her hand.

“No one woke me up,” Hermione said. “I thought we were doing the engagement today.”

“We are,” Narcissa assured her. “We let you sleep, and the boys are still in their rooms. You’ll all need your strength for the ceremony.”

Hermione took Narcissa’s warning seriously and spent the early afternoon resting in bed with her books and cat. It was a rare treat for her to relax in bed, completely without expectation or duty to get up. Back home with her parents, they’d told her wasting mornings was slothful, and with the Malfoys, there was simply too much to see and do. Even at Hogwarts, even on weekends, Hermione had always been woken up by the other girls in the dorm and she had to leave her bed to find peace and quiet for reading.

She made good headway on her reading before she finally got out of bed. The hardwood flooring, which might have given her a chill if it were any other morning, had been warmed by the late morning sun streaming through the window. Hermione padded into the adjourning bathroom and started the bath. With a wave of her hand, the scent of rain, cinnamon, and salt wafted through the room and bubbles began to froth in the water.

One bath later, Hermione tamed her hair into shapely curls, did some light make up, and got dressed. Narcissa hadn’t told her to dress fancy, so Hermione didn’t. She dressed in khaki shorts and a linen top, her hair pulled back and clipped on either side to keep it out of her face. It wasn’t anything spectacular - she didn’t go all out - but she looked nice. Put-together. Like she cared about their bonding even if it was only the ceremony today.

The boys, it seemed, had a similar plan. They were dressed in their own linen wear with their hair combed back but not gelled. Hermione joined them in the dining room for lunch, stopping to give each of the boys a kiss in greeting before she settled in her seat.

“What time are we starting today?” she asked as she served herself tea.

Theo looked across the table to Draco. “Dray?”

“Three,” he said, clearing his throat. “Maybe later. Depends on when father can get away from work.”

“Lucius is gone for the day?”

“Indeed,” Toma said, joining them. He settled at the table next to Hermione and served himself tea. “Left around 6, while you three were still snoring.”

“I don’t snore,” Hermione said. She reached over the table and grabbed for one of the tea sandwiches that were seemingly always sitting on the table for snacking throughout the day. “I can’t speak to the boys though.”

“Hey!”

“Excuse me?”

Hermione only shrugged. Toma gave her a smile, something playful and joking, but didn’t say anything. He only reached for a sandwich himself and sat back in his chair. After a moment, once he was done chewing, he cleared his throat. “When should I be out of the house today?”

“What?” Hermione asked before the boys could say anything.

“Three,” Draco said, ignoring Hermione’s questions all together. “Talk to Mother. She and my father planned a dinner thing for you all, I think you’ll be staying out in the cottage tonight.

“What?” Hermione repeated.

Theo took pity on her and reached across the table to take her hand. “We’re going to be completing an engagement bond,” he said. “It’s complicated magic, and having other people in the house can sometimes make it difficult. They’re clearing out to give us some space and privacy to do the ceremony.”

Hermione hated when she didn’t understand something, but she truly didn’t understand what the ceremony would look like. In the Muggle world, engagements were simple. Someone presented someone else with a ring and a promise, and that was simple. That was something Hermione had seen a thousand times in movies and shows and books. But a magical engagement was foreign to her and she didn’t know what to expect.

Theo read her panic, no matter how well she hid it, like he always read her. His foot found Draco’s under the table and he kicked.

“Ah!” Draco hissed, cutting himself off. He glared at Theo before he looked at Hermione and smiled. “It’s not a scary or complicated ceremony, Mya. But it takes some concentration and it’s best if there’s only our magic around. We’ll explain everything.”

Explain it, they did. Toma excused himself to pack his things while Draco and Theo gave Hermione the rundown of how the ceremony would work. It wasn’t detailed - they would get into the details while they were actually preparing and performing the ceremony, but Hermione felt like she could breathe again now that she had some idea of what she would be doing.

Lucius was late. He got home after a last minute meeting just before 5, and he was dragged back out of the house almost immediately by a stressed Narcissa. Apparently, they had dinner reservations at 5 and she thought they would be late.

As soon as the front door shut behind the Malfoys and Toma, Draco and Theo each looked back at Hermione.

“Go change,” Draco said. It would have been dismissive if Hermione didn’t know him. He was nervous.

“Change?” Hermione asked.

Theo gave her a warm smile “Draco just means to go and put on something Muggle. No magical threads or charms. There should be a dress or something that Narcissa left for you somewhere. Draco and I have something for ourselves.”

Hermione hesitated on the stairs as Draco disappeared ahead of her and Theo waited for her to go up the stairs. She looked back, and Theo nodded.

“Go on. We’ll wait for you here.”

Hermione hurried back to her room. Sure enough, at some point between Narcissa’s visit to Hermione’s room that morning and her leaving for dinner, she’d left Hermione a long dress of plain cotton. It was undyed, plain, and Hermione couldn’t feel a single thrum of magic in the weave.

The boys were waiting for her when she came downstairs again, and together they left the house. Hermione let them lead the way, Draco ahead of them and Theo at her side with a hand clasped in hers. The Manor was on a spacious plot of land, and Draco had told her once there was a fishing pond and a forested area on the very edge of it, but she’d never seen it herself. They walked for what felt like an hour, over manicured fields until they reached the less-cared for part of the yard. Wild grass and flowers, tall as Hermione’s waist, was wafting for at least a mile there.

Through the tall grass, into the woods, past what had to have been the fishing pond. Draco kept walking. Hermione felt the moment they stepped through the Malfoy Manor wards - a chill swept over her body before the sun’s heat beat it away.

“Where are we?” she asked when Draco finally stopped walking. They were standing in a small, barely noticeable clearing, but it was there. Someone had very deliberately left a ring of open space in the middle of these woods.

“We’re in a little unclaimed part of this forest,” he said. “Between our estate and the Greengrass estate.”

“Why did we come out this far?”

“We needed to be outside of the wards,” Theo said. “No magic can interrupt us here.”

The boys kneeled in the dirt, and Theo began to draw in the dirt below. He dug his finger into the ground, deep enough to leave gouges there, and when Hermione got a better look at what he was drawing, she realized it was runes.

“What will happen when-” Hermione cut herself off when Draco looked over his shoulder at her. It wasn’t a cold look, but it was a familiar one. He wanted to concentrate, and she wasn’t letting him.

The boys worked, and then gestured for Hermione to join them on her knees. They were arranged in a triangle, Theo’s runes between them all, and Draco was holding a few things. The first was the contract they’d signed when they first agreed to their arrangement. Beneath where Hermione had signed, he’d pressed a bloody fingerprint to the page. He passed the contract to Theo.

Theo brought his thumb to his mouth and bit down. Blood welled up over the pad of his thumb, and he took a moment to concentrate before he brought his own fingerprint down on the page. Then he passed it to Hermione.

“You don’t have to draw the blood through injury,” he assured her.

“Just focus on your magic,” Draco said. “Like you’re casting blood magic, but don’t think of anything other than becoming our wife.”

Hermione filled her mind with thoughts of the two men beside her. Every time they made her feel safe and loved and cared for, every time she’d wanted beyond want to marry them. She channeled the uncertainty she had felt a year ago and focused on the first resolve she felt now.

Her ring finger welled with blood, and she pressed a messy print to the contract beside Draco and Theo’s.

“Now the fun part,” Theo laughed, and Draco rolled his eyes.

Draco held out his hand, where he had a silver knife. He pulled the blade along his palm, but he kept his hand cupped and closed even after he pulled the knife free. Theo took it next, repeating the action and then passing the knife to Hermione.

“Don’t think about it,” he said. “This part isn’t about intention. It’s about the blood.”

Hermione had to press the blade into her palm. She didn’t expect to have so much trouble cutting her own hand - she thought the blade would be sharp enough. But it took pressure and resolve, and she finally cut her hand with a short, soft gasp.

“Now,” Draco said, extending his hand. “Together.”

The three of them held out their hands, Hermione following whatever the boys did, and then they opened their hands. The flow of blood that fell from their hands was steady, a stream that was almost unnatural. It pooled in the dirt, and then Hermione saw why Theo had drawn such deep marks into the ground. Her blood flowed into one end of the rune, and Draco’s into another, and Theo’s into another still. The three streams met in the middle, and Hermione felt it in her hand where Blood was still dripping. It was like there was a sudden pull between them all, something settling into her body and bones and blood. Like she could feel her own blood in the rune in the ground, but also in the air around her, in Draco and Theo’s outstretched hands.

As quickly as the feeling came, there was a glow. It was golden and airy, like sunlight concentrated, and Hermione’s hand abruptly stopped bleeding. It was more than that. The blood in the ground at her knees began to pull backwards, out of the dirt, back up the slow stream of her hand, and then back into the cut she’d pulled across her palm. It happened in a matter of seconds, faster than Hermione could protest the cleanliness of such a ritual.

Draco met her eyes. “It’s safe, we’re fine. Your blood now carries a bit of Theo and my magicks, and a bit of our blood. As far as our bodies and our magic is concerned, the three of us are entwined permanently. We’re the same.”

“It will take months for us to hone this part of the bond,” Theo added. “But by the time we get married, we will be entirely connected. You and I have joined the House Malfoy.”

“Not the House Nott?” Hermione asked, furrowing her brows. Theo just shook his head with a laugh.

“Gods, no,” he said. “You and I are joining the Malfoy core of magic. Frankly, you have no core for us to join, and my core is weakened by my father already. It wouldn’t be able to sustain two more cores. The Malfoy core is strong, stable, and untainted.”

Hermione got to her feet and dusted her knees off. Where her hand had been bleeding moments ago, there was a faint line of gold, fading fast but there nonetheless. Before she could examine it too much, Draco grabbed her hand. On his other side, Theo was holding his hand.

“It’s a long walk back,” Draco said. “We should go now before it gets dark.”