Chapter 19
Draco
“How did it go?”
Draco looked up from his lunch and at Devon next to him. It was his second day back at Hogwarts – the day before had just been a staff meeting in which the new school year and schedules had been discussed and during which he had been invited to call his former teachers by their first names as he was practically a staff member now. In Devon’s case it had come easy; during his last school year he had become very close to him anyway, but he would definitely have to get used to calling McGonagall Minerva. Somehow, every time he did it – and he had only done it twice so far, he half-expected detention with Filch.
After the meeting, Devon had given him a rough schedule for the first six months of his apprenticeship and then he had stayed for the Sorting Ceremony and the feast afterwards. McGonagall … Minerva had introduced him as a new teacher for the first and second years and for the first time of many to come he had on the teachers’ table. Halfway through the feast when he had looked down at the students, Keira Gordon from the Hufflepuff table had met his eyes and had given him a small, but excited smile.
This morning, he had had his first double lesson with some first years and he had been especially nervous about that. He remembered well that Severus’ speech to first years had made a great impression on his eleven-year-old self, but he also knew that his godfather had intimidated most of his classmates. He had tried to make an impression without the extreme intimidation and for all he could tell, he had been successful. Minerva, who had once more watched the lesson, had certainly thought it had gone well and had told him that if this was how all lessons this week went, she would stop sitting in as of the following week.
Between the lesson and lunch, he had had some free time and had started preparing the ingredients of the potion Devon wanted him to brew first for his apprenticeship. They would start at 3 pm today after Devon’s last lesson for the day.
“It went well. They were all really motivated, but to be fair, everyone is at their first day.”
Devon chuckled. “That’s all too true.”
“I set everything up for the potion later and already cut up the ingredients that don’t have to be cut fresh.”
“Looks like the students are not the only ones who are motivated.”
Draco grinned. “Of course not.” While Minerva had set the schedule in a way that Draco had all lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays, he would be at Hogwarts most of the days and use the free time between lessons and when Devon was in lessons mainly to work or study for his apprenticeship or to mark the students’ work and homework, so he would have time for Hermione, his family and friends in the evenings, especially since he would work with Devon at least for some hours on most weekends and during school holidays. The next three years would be busy, but Draco was definitely highly motivated.
An eagle owl flew into the Great Hall and landed on Draco’s shoulder. It was Nala, Hermione’s owl, a birthday gift from his father, and the only reason she fit on his shoulder was that she wasn’t fully grown yet, but the still relatively small bird was very eager to please and stretched out her leg so he could easily reach the letter attached to it. “Thanks, Nala.” He gave her a piece of chicken from his plate before she took off. When he felt Minerva’s eyes on him, he smiled apologetically at her – usually owl post was only allowed in the morning. “Sorry, that won’t happen again. Hermione had her job interview this morning and she promised to let me know how it went.”
Immediately the sternness in Minerva’s gaze vanished. “Oh, at the Ministry?”
He nodded while opening the letter. “Yes, for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” She hadn’t even had the job yet, but his father had already sat her down to discuss the course of the following years with her and the funny thing was that she was completely on board with that. He would never understand why she hadn’t been sorted into Slytherin, so much ambition and cunning and all the house points over the years had gone to Gryffindor. It was a shame. They could have won the House Cup every year.
Hi,
I hope your first day is going well! I got the job and will start next week!
Love,
Hermione
Everyone at the teachers’ table was now looking at him expectantly and with a smile he put the letter down. “She got the job!”
Hagrid let out a loud laugh. “I knew it! When ye ‘ave some time, come to my hut later. I have some fresh rock cakes. Hermione loves them.”
“I will,” he replied with a smile. At the beginning of last year Hagrid had still been understandably sceptical with Draco, but when he had become friends with Hermione she had sometimes taken him with her when she had visited Hagrid and he had come to like the half-giant and Hagrid in turn had considerably warmed up to him, too. During those visits, Draco had also tasted the rock cakes and he knew very well that Hermione was just being polite when she gushed about how much she loved them, but of course he would keep that to himself.
xxx
He came home at around 6:30 and after looking in the rooms he now shared with Hermione and the library, he found his mother in her and his father’s sitting room. Alone.
Narcissa looked up from her book and smiled. “Hello, darling. How was it?”
“Great!” That was true. He had expected teaching to be a duty he had to perform as a condition for his apprenticeship, but he enjoyed it almost as much as working with Devon afterwards. “Do you know where Hermione is?”
Narcissa’s smile widened and raised her eyebrows at him. “Where do you think? Your apprenticeship will be a walk in the park in comparison to what Lucius has in store for her.”
Laughing, he shook his head. “I’d say I feel sorry for her, but yesterday after finally emerging from father’s study she wouldn’t stop talking about how much she’s learning from him.” He was fine with that, as long as he had a willing student, Draco had reason to hope that he would be left alone when it came to political intrigues. “I think I’ll take a risk and interrupt them.”
“You’re very brave. While you’re at it, do remind them that we’ll have dinner in 20 minutes.”
“I will.”
He went back downstairs, knocked and entered his father’s study. They were both sitting at Lucius’ desk, a large tomb in front of them, probably some law book Draco didn’t have the slightest interest in.
When she saw him, however, she beamed, got up and they met midway through the study, where Draco hugged his fiancée tightly before kissing her. “Congratulations! Not like I had any doubt.”
“I had enough for the two of us.” She chuckled.
“That’s another thing we have to work on. A little more confidence goes a long way,” Lucius drawled.
“Hey! It’s not like I told them I was worried about not getting the job.”
“Oh, careful, he’ll give you a whole speech about body language and performance. And mother wants me to remind the both of you that we’ll have dinner at 7.” Draco grinned. “While we’re at it, I brought dessert. Hagrid gave me some rock cakes for you.”
“What in the world are rock cakes?”
Hermione grinned at Draco mischievously before turning back to his father. “They are delicious! You really have to try one.”
Hermione
“I hope that won’t end in carnage.”
Hermione rolled her eyes as she finished applying her make-up. It was Saturday and tonight they would meet their friends – all of them, Slytherins, Gryffindors and one Ravenclaw. It was time to get them all together and since today they would celebrate that Hermione would soon officially work for the Ministry, they had decided that it was the perfect occasion. “I’m sure they’ll behave.”
“Does Weasley know that?” Draco’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.
She snorted. “How would he? He doesn’t even know who else is coming.” They’d meet in a pub in Dublin which Theo had discovered and which they had visited several times with the Slytherin group. It was nice, comfortable, had great drinks and was easy to reach via the floo network. And there was another bonus: In Dublin people made much less of a fuss about seeing the Golden Girl and Draco Malfoy than in London.
Sure, Lucius had made their engagement public shortly after Draco had proposed and everyone and their mother knew that the wedding would be next spring. They had also had their first public appearance together; a charity ball at the Ministry Narcissa had helped organise. But when they were seen together in Wizarding London, people still interacted with them all the time. Some were nice, thanked them for what they had done during the War and congratulated them on their engagement; some others weren’t so nice. There were still those who didn’t quite believe that the Malfoys had truly changed sides and despite all the evidence to the contrary, they didn’t believe they had strongly contributed to the victory over Voldemort. They weren’t many, but they were loud and often enough they were calling Draco a Death Eater, which he just ignored completely. To Hermione’s chagrin, he wasn’t just as calm when they called her a Death Eater whore, but so far she had always managed to prevent a duel. And then there were the purebloods who didn’t like that the Malfoy heir would marry a muggle-born and with them it went much the same. General insults and insults to Draco were ignored, but he did get protective when the insults were directed at her specifically. It was sweet, but at the same time, she didn’t want him to get into trouble. She had made him promise to leave those idiots alone and he had kept that promise, but it was still nice to go somewhere where people didn’t care so much about who they were.
“Ready?” He asked as she came out of the bathroom and she nodded. He smiled. “You look great.”
Smiling in return, she kissed him before taking his hand. “Come on, we should be there first.”
“You’re probably right.”
xxx
They didn’t arrive first, Greg was already there and when they came, and he greeted them with a smile and Hermione with a short and maybe a little awkward hug. “Congratulations on your new job! I’m sure you’ll do great!”
“Thank you!” Out of all of Draco’s friends, who had become her friends, too, she surprisingly was closest to Greg. Pansy and Daphne were great and more than once had included her in a girl’s night after she had finished school and Theo and Blaise were so much fun to be around, but Greg had turned out to be surprisingly sweet and she liked talking to him. And when he had visited the Manor, he had immediately made friends with Crooks, which was a huge plus in Hermione’s book.
“Are the others coming, too?” Greg asked.
Draco and Hermione exchanged a look and Draco nodded, turning back to his friend. “Yes, all of them. Including Potter, two Weasleys, Longbottom and Luna.”
Hermione smiled as the only one he listed by first name was Luna. While Hermione was closest to Greg, Draco was definitely closest to her. He may have more to talk about with Harry, Ron, Ginny and even Neville, but he was very protective of Luna and he had far more patience for listening to her theories than Hermione would ever have. She wasn’t proud to admit it, but that was how it was. He never showed a sign of annoyance – Hermione tried the same but she didn’t think she was always successful – and he never made fun of her after she was gone.
When Luna and Neville had visited the Manor and Luna had exclaimed that surely such a huge building hosted a whole colony of Fisslewiggs – a creature the Quibbler had reported about – Draco had glared at Lucius from behind Luna’s back, daring him to say anything sarcastic. Hermione had barely just managed not to giggle, especially when Lucius had met her eyes a moment later.
Greg’s eyes now widened, but before he could say anything, Theo arrived and a moment later Luna and Neville. That part was easy. Luna didn’t look at all surprised and Greg, Theo and Neville were the least of their worries.
Pansy was the next to arrive, and while they were worried about her meeting Ron, she was perfectly civil when she greeted Luna and Neville. Daphne and Blaise arrived together, which made Pansy grin smugly. She had had the theory that the two of them were together or would be soon for a few weeks now. They, too, were perfectly nice, Blaise even kissed Luna’s hand in greeting, which made her giggle.
Then came, always fashionably late as Draco called it sarcastically, Harry, Ginny and Ron.
Ron’s eyes widened immediately. “What are they doing here?”
“Nice to see you, too, Weasley,” Pansy countered.
Before they could say anything more, Hermione interrupted them in a very stern voice. “They’re here because they’re my friends, too, Ronald and I invited them to celebrate with us tonight. And you will behave. Is that clear?”
Draco looked at her in silent amusement and then turned to Pansy with a smirk. “The same goes for you, Pansy. Is that clear?”
She flipped him off, but didn’t say anything else. Hermione supressed a grin when it turned out that Ron most certainly wasn’t brave enough for a similar reaction and reluctantly sat down.
Ginny did not supress her grin. “You’ve trained my brother well.”
That broke the ice. Everyone, even Ron, laughed and two hours later, Draco tapped Hermione’s shoulder. She had been deep in conversation with Daphne and Ginny and now turned to her fiancé. “Yes?”
“Does that look like flirting to you or does he have some kind of fit?”
She followed his gaze to Ron, who sat next to Pansy now. To her eyes it was obvious that he tried to look extra cool as he talked to her. Pansy looked amused, but not in a depreciating way. Actually, she looked like she had a great time.
That was the last thing she had expected to happen tonight, but she certainly wouldn’t complain.
~tbc~