Chapter 2
On 5 June a birthday party for Draco was held. Some of the Malfoys’ relatives, some of which travelled from France to Wiltshire by means of an international Portkey, came to stay to stay at the Manor for a day or two with their own children. Draco made a point in including her when he spent time with his cousins and most of the adults where nice to her. She did overhear a conversation between Narcissa and an older woman, though. Her name was Mathilde Malfoy, a witch who was well over a hundred years old and a great-great aunt or something of Lucius.
“I’m truly sorry, if you are unhappy with one of our other guests, Mathilde.” Narcissa did not sound sorry at all. “If one of Draco’s friends staying here is a problem for you, I’m sure Lucius will be able to organise an earlier Portkey back to Lyon for you.”
“She shouldn’t be under the same roof as us. Under the roof under which our honourable ancestors have dwelt.” Hermione flinched involuntarily at the harshness in the old woman’s voice.
Narcissa did not sound faced. “Very well.” She heard Narcissa move through the drawing room, her heels clicking on the marble floor. She did not come towards the entrance hall Hermione was standing in, close to the drawing room door, which was just a tad open, but probably towards her husband’s study, the door of which was on the other side of the drawing room.
A knock and then a door opened. “Lucius, Mathilde wishes to leave us. Could you floo to the Ministry and see, if you can get a Portkey for today?”
Again, Hermione noticed how very much in synch Lucius and Narcissa were. There was no question or even protest when she basically told him that she had thrown out his ancient relative. While Lucius Malfoy was certainly a traditionalist at heart, she couldn’t imagine that he would ever question his wife’s authority in her own home, least of all in company.
He didn’t miss a beat and his voice was perfectly calm. “Certainly. I’m sure something can be done.” She heard him get up, excuse himself to the people in his study he had been talking to, and went through the floo directly to the Ministry. Mathilde started to say something, her voice outraged, but suddenly Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder.
Startled, she looked up to see Lydia de Clare, Lucius’ younger sister, who was married to a French wizard and had arrived the day before together with her husband Charles and her ten-year-old twin sons, Armand and Lucien.
She led a very embarrassed Hermione away from the door. “I didn’t mean to listen, I just went past the door and it was open …”
“Don’t worry about it.” Lydia looked very much like Lucius, the white-blond hair seemed to be a very typical family trait, as were the grey eyes, but her smile was more open than her brother’s and given more freely. “And don’t worry about Mathilde either. No one is going to miss her. She is almost 170 now and Lucius and I have had an ongoing bet ever since we were children as to how long she’s still going to be around to make everyone miserable. Every time she’s here, Narcissa is just waiting for a reason to make her leave, it’s not the first time.”
Hermione let out a surprised giggle.
“Go on, I think Draco and some of the others are over at the maze.”
With Mathilde gone, the atmosphere was far more pleasant and everyone was in a good mood on Draco’s birthday the next day. Their other friends came, of course, as did some others from Slytherin house. Professor Snape was there and after cake, he and Lucius went to Lucius’ study for some time, either to discuss something in private or to get away from the large number of children roaming the grounds. Maybe both.
The next day, they had the Manor to themselves once more, as Lydia and her family, the last to leave, had a Portkey for the late afternoon.
“Birthdays should happen less frequently,” Lucius said in a dry voice that evening, leaning back in his favourite armchair and taking a sip from his glass of fine firewhiskey.
Both Draco and Hermione had to laugh. “You should have gone for a leap year, then,” Draco quipped.
“It seems that timing is not our forte,” he said with a look to his wife, who smiled.
“Do you really think that Draco would have been content with a party every four years?”
“Would he have had a say in that?”
“Yes, I would have!”
“Of course.” Lucius said with a quiet chuckle. Then he turned to Hermione. “Did you practise as I told you?”
Hermione nodded eagerly. She had practised for Occlumency every night before bed. As Lucius had explained it to her, it was a kind of meditation, during which she tried to clear her mind and imagine a way to discreetly put memories away, as he had explained at first by picturing in her mind either a wall, a locked room or something more creative like a library. Hermione had chosen a library, similar to the one in Malfoy Manor. Every night she had tried to imagine the library as vividly as possible, the many shelves and memories she didn’t mind people to see in the front shelves, memories she wanted to keep hidden further in the back in books that couldn’t be taken out, like the ones Lucius and Narcissa did not want the children to read. It didn’t work quite the way it should yet, but she was getting better. “I did, every night.”
“Very good. We’ll start with the practical lessons tomorrow then, some time each afternoon. Severus will join us now and then. All three of us are skilled Legilimens and Occlumens. If you reach the level we think you require, we’ll talk before you return to Hogwarts.”
“Alright.”
Hermione was nervous before her first real Occlumency lesson. There were, after all, memories she didn’t want them to see, but it started easy enough. Lucius, and sometimes Narcissa or Professor Snape, probed her mind and gave her, as a first step, the opportunity to push them out, making it gradually harder for her. That was one way to fight a Legilimens, she had read in the book. However, if she did that, the Legilimens would know she had noticed the attempt to invade her mind. Sometimes, Lucius or Narcissa would spontaneously make eye contact and use Legilimency outside of lessons and soon she managed to notice every time and push back.
They seemed content with her progress and the lessons were never so long that she didn’t have enough time to enjoy her holidays with Draco, their friends or in the library. Sometimes they went out, to have dinner at a restaurant or went to Diagon Alley, where they went to the Quidditch shop and Flourish and Blotts and had, on Draco’s insistence, ice cream afterwards. The Malfoys paid for everything and insisted for her not to worry about the money.
After almost three weeks of regular practise, their attempts to invade her mind became considerably more forceful and she started not pushing back and imagined her library instead, imagined herself taking books from the first few shelves with meaningless memories of her room in the house of her parents, things she had learned in her Muggle school or at Hogwarts, Daphne telling her the newest gossip, her spending time in the Slytherin common room, Narcissa playing the piano. She even chose some unpleasant memories, which they knew about anyway to not make her attempt at hiding things less obvious: Marcus Flint calling her a mudblood and Draco putting him in his place, her parents sending her to her room and her hiding away there to avoid them. She imagined herself throwing these books at the invader while keeping the others hidden away in the shelves further in the back.
Once, however, when Snape tried in earnest, her shelves broke down and books from the back were pulled to the front and she could see what he saw: Her Muggle schoolmates calling her a freak, stealing her books, running after her after school or during breaks. Her father slapping her hard after the TV had toppled over when something had startled her, him roughly pushing her to the ground, yelling at her after a window had burst because she had been upset and scared about him blaming her for something she hadn’t even done, him towering over her, yelling. Hermione gave up trying to push other memories to the front and instead pushed against him so hard that he physically tumbled when he was thrown out of her mind.
Hermione was breathing heavily, mortified and embarrassed, and Severus looked at her quietly for a moment. Then he turned towards the door. “Lucius, a word.”
As the two men left the room they used for training, Hermione stood stock still until she felt Narcissa’s hand on her shoulder. The older witch gently led her to the sofa and sat down with her.
Hermione remained quiet, her eyes on the ground. “Do you want to tell me what Severus saw?”
She sniffed and shook her head. They had been so nice to her, she should have hidden those memories better and not make this their problem, too. They would probably be fed up with her now.
The door opened again. “Narcissa,” Lucius addressed his wife. “Please join us for a moment.”
“I’ll be right back.” Narcissa’s voice was still gentle as she stood up and went outside. Once more, the door closed.
Part of her was aware that they didn’t make her wait long, but time dragged anyway. What were they talking about? Would she have to leave?
The door opened and all three adults came back in. Narcissa sat down next to her again and gently laid a hand on her back.
Lucius sat in an armchair opposite them and Snape hovered nearby. “Miss Granger,” her teacher said after a moment. His smooth voice neutral, not accusatory. “I understand that this is not easy for you to talk about. But please tell us, if this was a regular occurrence. We are not going to judge. Not you, at least,” he added and this time Hermione heard a bitter tinge in his voice.
She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up. Lucius watched her intently while his pose was seemingly relaxed. Snape stood next to the fireplace. “I … sometimes … when I accidentally did magic … or he thought I did, he tried to stop me … by punishing me.” Her voice was very quiet. “I tried not to, but sometimes, when I was upset or scared, I couldn’t help it.”
“Of course you couldn’t.” Lucius’ voice was calm. “It is perfectly natural that children can’t control their magic. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Are … you going to send me away now?”
“Why would we?” Narcissa’s voice actually sounded shocked. “Dear girl, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
She let out a quiet sigh of relief, nodded.
“We are also not making you go back there for the next holidays,” Narcissa added.
Hermione’s eyes widened. She wouldn’t have to go back? Could they do that? Would she spend future holidays in an orphanage? Would she then still be able to attend Hogwarts? Yes, she told herself, Voldemort had grown up in an orphanage, too, and he had still attended Hogwarts. All books agreed on that and why would that be a lie?
“It’s your choice, of course, but Lucius and I would be willing to become your magical guardians.” Hermione turned her head in shock to look at Narcissa. “That means that we are responsible for your upbringing and wellbeing and of course you spend the holidays with us, that includes Christmas and Easter. If that is not what you want, we’ll find a different solution.”
She stared at Narcissa in complete disbelief. If that wasn’t what she wanted? How could that not be what she wanted? She had never been happier than in the last few weeks. The mere possibility was overwhelming, but taking in another child was so big. What if they came to regret it? It wasn’t their responsibility to take care of her, just because she had made friends with their son mere months ago.
“You can say yes, you know,” Snape drawled. “If they didn’t want you here, they’d send you to an orphanage and be done with it.”
“Thank you for your input, Severus.” Narcissa’s voice was full of sarcasm.
“I’m always glad to help.”
Hermione smiled a little at the exchange, but then became serious once more. “I love it here, but I don’t want to be a burden,” she admitted quietly.
“It’s good then that you are not,” Lucius drawled smoothly. “I already told you, we like having you here and it’s quite good for Draco not to be the only child. We may have spoilt him, just a little. And he enjoys your company, I can’t imagine him having a problem with this.”
Honestly, she couldn’t either. She had become very close to Draco, who was currently with Theo during the time of her lesson. She had originally planned to join them at Nott Manor later, where she had been once before.
“Well, since you love it here, I suppose we are sending Lucius to the Ministry to take care of the necessary paperwork.“ Narcissa smiled sweetly at her husband who smirked.
“Why is it always me who takes care of the paperwork?”
“Because you are the family head, the upmost authority.”
Hermione had never heard Snape laugh, but now he let out a soft chuckle.
With a sigh and a side glance at Snape, Lucius got up. “I think we’ll continue your lessons tomorrow, if you still want to.”
“Of course I do!” This had always been a risk, although she had become more confident that she would be able to avoid them seeing this as she had improved her skills. It had just shown her how easily her barriers could still be breached, if someone didn’t take it easy on her. And now that this would be her home, she wanted more than ever to be trusted with the information Lucius would share with her once she was good enough to hide them.
Lucius left for the Ministry and Hermione took the floo to Nott Manor as she had planned all along. One of the Notts’ house elves led her into the garden, where Draco and Theo were flying, trying to catch a snitch. When they saw her, they came down to the ground and Draco pulled his wand from his holster. “Accio Snitch.” The snitch landed in his hand.
Hermione stared at him. “When did you learn that? We won’t learn the Summoning Spell before fourth year!”
“You are one to talk with your expanded bag. Father taught me during the Easter holidays, I think he was annoyed because he always had to come out to summon the snitch when we didn’t catch it before meals or when we didn’t want to play anymore.”
“You’re both swots,” Theo grumbled with a small grin.
“Are you alright?” Draco looked at her and it was only then that Hermione took notice of how shaken she still felt after what had just occurred. “I know Occlumency lessons can be pretty intense.”
Theo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Snape and Lucius taught us almost every day for six months before school and less regularly before that. Hogwarts almost felt like a holiday after that.”
She smiled a little, but the smile quickly fell. “Yeah, it was intense. Snape saw something … Some things that happened at home and now they don’t want me to go back.” She let out a nervous laugh. “Not that I want to go back. Your parents want to become my magical guardians. Actually, your father already went to the Ministry to settle it.”
The boys looked worried. “What did he see?” Draco asked with a frown.
She shrugged. “Just … my father sometimes became quite angry when I accidentally used magic or he thought I did. And when he became angry … he sometimes hurt me.”
Draco’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I didn’t think there was anything Professor Snape or your parents could do,” she admitted quietly.
“Even if there legally wasn’t, father could have put them under the Imperius and forbid them to hurt you,” Draco grumbled as Hermione just stared at him.
“Yeah, it’s a shame she didn’t think of the practical use of the Unforgivables when it’s the most obvious thing in the world.” Theo rolled his eyes at him.
Draco just shrugged, clearly upset about the new reveal.
She bit her lower lip nervously. “Do you mind that your parents want me to stay with you?”
“Of course not! You’re not going back to that brute!” Draco seemed offended by the mere suggestion. But then he managed a smile. “Also, I always wanted a sister.”
At that she had to laugh. “You’re trying to convince me you ever imagined a life in which you are not the only main character?”
Theo snorted. “She has you there, mate.”
~tbc~