Nothing Was As It Was Told

Hermione watched as the Queen stepped into the Hall, looking completely regal and elegant, even though she looked perfectly normal. Hermione supposed that she hadn't wanted to flaunt her heritage, so she had dressed down from her usual floor length gowns into a simple jumpsuit. This, however only magnified how she looked. The olive brown skin and brown hair that Hermione had inherited from her perfectly complimented the ombre blue outfit she had on.

The Queen's Outfit

Hermione looked a lot like her mother. The only thing that was different was their eyes. Hermione's mother had beautifully deep, grey eyes that were filled with wisdom. Her daughter, however, inherited her eye color from her husband. It was something that Hermione hated about herself. Not only did she already have so many scars from him, both emotional and physical, she just had to have his eyes.

The Queen glided to her daughter, looking as if she wasn't even touching the ground and stopped in front of her. She took Hermione's face into her hands and looked at her apologetically. Hermione knew then, she had tried her best, but there was nothing even she could do to stop the abhorrent law from taking place. Hermione looked at her and she felt her mother engulf her into a comforting hug.

Hermione breathed in deep, taking in the moment. They didn't do this much. They couldn't. They were royalty to an entire country, they had traditions and customs to uphold. They were to stand tall in front of their people and never, even for a second, show their weakness or doubts. The fact that her mother had allowed herself this moment told her that she cared. It got hard sometimes, never being able to see your mother, show her weakness, never being told that she had made her proud.

She knew her mother felt all of these emotions too, but Hermione let herself be selfish for a moment. She let herself get angry and sad and insecure in the safe cocoon her mother had given her. Away from the Malfoys, the Darius' away from the world, but she had to come back up some time. So, she did.

She looked at her mother and they both smiled. She moved away and turned to the two families that were both waiting for her to be done. She went to Alexander's parents first. "Mom, I believe you know Alexander and his parents." All three of them bowed, the perfect example of well-mannered. They didn't, however, address her as 'Your Highness', a clear degree of familiarity. She shook Ander's hand as she exchanged pleasantries.

She then turned her focus onto the Malfoys who looked perfectly content waiting for her to introduce them to her mother. She didn't want to walk on eggshells around them for the rest of her life, so she dropped the bomb. "This is Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy and their son, Draco Malfoy. Meet my mother, Wendell Granger...., Queen of Australia" Hermione waited for the infuriating simpering that always begun when people found out about her status. She was very pleased to find that it didn't happen.

"Pleased to meet you." Mrs. Malfoy raised her hand - much more reluctantly than she did with Hermione - and watched as her mother shook it. She did the same with Malfoy Senior.

She looked to Malfoy and narrowed her eyes. "Hermione, would you go get your brothers?"

Hermione smirked and left to go find them without a word. One thing her mother didn't know, was that years of musical training with both Muggles and Wizards/Witches had given her excellent hearing. She could usually hear from almost 7 meters away. She heard her say, "My daughter has told me a lot about you. Oh, I wouldn't look so happy about it. It was nothing good. I'm going to say this once. To the both of you."

"Oh, the talk." snarked Malfoy.

"How about I talk and you listen?" she snapped back.

She must have pulled Ander into the conversation too.

"You hurt that girl, I will go to war against you. The Hat has made a very strange pairing here."

"Oh, we've noticed." said Ander.

"That girl is beloved. The entire country adores her. They would pick her over a thousand people in a heartbeat. Everyone will be watching you. I'm not saying give her everything she wants - although I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to get you to do that anyway - I'm saying watch it. If my daughter is unhappy, I will run you to the ground."

Hermione was touched, but she didn't need her mother fighting her battles for her. She had found her brothers and was just about to step in when Alexander spoke up.

"Our turn to speak now?" he asked.

My mother looked at him. "Sure."

Malfoy said, "You can have your people run around chasing me through the streets, waving sticks at me, I genuinely don't care. I'm a Malfoy. I'm not going to back off, just because your daughter might be difficult. I have a lot to make up for, especially to her. I know that. I also know that I'm here to stay and I am going to work it out with her. And him." He tilted his head towards Ander.

"Gee thanks. But, he's right. We're committed to doing this. I've been blindsided by the Law but that doesn't mean I wasn't going to try and make amends with your daughter. The situation just forces her into it."

Hermione watched her mother carefully, waiting to see her reaction. To her surprise, the Queen smiled and nodded. Hermione supposed that was that.

She stepped towards them, making her presence known and her mother started speaking again.

"I suppose you should know, that we are at an extremely dangerous crossroads here. I would like to start both of your spouses on basic training at the very least. It is their choice, but being your spouses means that they require the ability to protect themselves without their magic. Talk to Javier about it and see if Harry and Ron's matches will be amenable to do the same. I have to go meet your brothers' intended too and then I'll be leaving. Be careful, rational and don't die."

Her mother gave her an all-knowing look as if she knew that she was going to get into trouble. Hermione smirked and nodded.

She turned her attention back to Malfoy and Ander who were similarly saying their goodbyes.

Once they were done, Hermione said, "I agree with my mother. I believe you need basic military and customs training. I would like to speak to the family butler if you agree."

They both looked at each other uneasily and nodded.

"Okay. How did your parents react to you having to marry me?" She asked sarcastically.

"Well. Despite your extremely off-putting family status, they were pleased to see that at least they didn't have to have an embarrassment for a daughter in law." He said just as sassily.

Ander smirked. He looked like Christmas had come early when Malfoy said that. He was so smug that he knew something that so little did. "Are you going to tell him or should I?"

Hermione shot him a look that would have made anyone cower in fear, but he just raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to do something about it. "Thanks for that. My family situation is... complicated."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes, immediately skeptical. Hermione could practically hear the wheels in his head spinning to try and figure out what he didn't know, even though there was no possible way he could have known. "Complicated how?" he asked.

Hermione drew in a long breath, trying to understand how her life had turned upside down so quickly. "...My father's name was Pollux Rosier."

Malfoy's eyes widened. Even his famous blank Malfoy-ish stare wouldn't stay up due to this piece of information. His gaze darted across her face, as if look for clues that she was related to the vicious pureblood family.

"Stop that." She smacked him in the arm, uncomfortable with her childhood bully looking so invested in her features. "You aren't going to find anything. Another thing you should probably know about me, I almost always have multiple glamours casted on myself." It was true, putting aside the glamours on her tattoos and unsightly scars, she had also hid some of the features she had inherited from her father.

"Wait, I've never heard of a Pollux Rosier in their family's bloodline." Malfoy mused out-loud.

"That's the thing. His existence was hidden away by the family because they considered him something of a disgrace. He was born extremely weak, magical-wise. He didn't have a lot of energy in his magical core. It was just enough for him to be labelled a Wixen, but too little for him to actually cast with."

"But-.... Rosiers are some of the most powerful of the Wizarding population." Malfoy's face lit up as if he had just realized something. "That's why you're so powerful isn't it? You're part Rosier."

"I'm powerful because I have to be. I'm powerful because I work on it. And stop interrupting me. Anyway, he was practically shunted out of the family due to all of his problems, and he was desperate to prove himself. He wanted to climb the social ladder as quickly as possible, so he married the most high-profile woman he could find. That happened to be my mother." She held up a finger as Malfoy started to interrupt again. "I will hex your mouth shut if you don't let me finish."

Malfoy just smirked at her and let her continue.

"He spoke with my grandfather, the previous monarch of the country and he convinced him that marrying into a family like his would be most beneficial. Grandfather was a very orthodox man. He didn't believe women were powerful enough to be cunning or to ever amount to anything, so he thought he was doing the heavy lifting as he got my parents married against my mother's will. Both of the men demanded they have kids so that the King could pass on his monarchy in peace. They were extremely pleased when my mother gave birth to two boys 3 years into the marriage, both extremely talented and powerful." Hermione drew in a breath, knowing that this was when the story was going to get bad. She hated telling it and only a few select people even knew.

"Two years after, she gave birth again. This time to twins. A baby girl and a boy. My grandfather didn't want a daughter. He hated the idea of it and he decided that she would just be a drain to the Royal family. He informed my mother that he was going to take the girl away and give her to an old lady that ran an orphanage in the dead of night. However, before he could, he was killed of...unknown causes. All they knew was that the King's daughter was the only one who could take up the post."

Alexander leaned in, this was all he knew, but he always suspected there was more to the story than Hermione had ever told him. 

She became Queen and her husband became King Consort. Her oldest son immediately became the Crown Prince and her children next in line. The King Consort was enraged. He had expected the title of monarch to go to him and everyday he took that out on his children. Hermione's voice got quieter as she spoke. She didn't want to tell them, but she knew she had to. As she was speaking, the boys had led her out of the Great Hall and they were wandering around the school without her realizing it. She supposed they realized she was having trouble reliving and saved her from the embarrassment to everyone hearing her.

"The King Consort terrorized his children and did his best to whip them into the best and the brightest across the world." Hermione laughed humorlessly. "Sometimes quite literally.

Anyway, the King had ways of keeping this from my mother. This is why she had no idea, until our youngest sister, Gwen confessed everything to her. She had the him banished from the country after him being appropriately punished. The sad sod, of course married the country's biggest rival's daughter. He hasn't been in our country in over three years."

"Wait, why only banished? Why didn't she kill him?"

"My mother still had to cement her standing in Court, and if she had killed him, she would have looked either weak for trying to kill a problem or would look problematic herself, for killing everyone she disagreed with. She wanted respect not terror."

Hermione glanced at Malfoy and then Ander, waiting for their reactions. Malfoy looked to be still processing but Ander looked like he was furious.

He started speaking in an even, calm tone but Hermione heard the edge in his voice. "So let me see if I've got all the facts straight. You had an asshole grandfather. A father you abused you, while you were in a relationship with me and the worst part is you never even told me! His voice broke towards the end due to how angry he seemed. "Mia, I- I don't know how I missed it. Am I really that-"

"Sometimes.... you just miss the signs. There's nothing you can really do about it and even if you did know, there was nothing you could have done except wait for her to come to you herself." Surprisingly it was Malfoy who answered Ander.

Hermione looked at his, surprised. He had said exactly what she was going to.

Draco looked at Granger blankly. He knew what he had to say to Alexander because there was certainly no bad blood between them. But Granger.... Granger and Draco had a turbulent past. She probably wouldn't appreciate him attempting to comfort her, so he did the one thing he knew would get her going again as well as give him some comfort after being so vulnerable.

"Well, we've heard your sob story. It's nice to know that while I genuinely don't care if you aren't a Muggleborn, my parents will be pleased. Your two sidekicks are probably losing their minds worrying about where I've kidnapped you to and I would rather like to sleep without worrying about whether a redhead is going to curse me. So, we're heading back to the Hall. Chop, chop."

He started walking away, knowing the other two would follow.

Alexander called after him, "Being a dick doesn't make yours any bigger you know!"

Draco smirked, turned around so he was walking backward and replied, "I don't really need a lot of help in that department."

He watched as Alexander's eyes popped and his cheeks reddened. Draco was surprised to find that he desperately wanted to see that look more often.

He also knew that he was making an active effort not to look at Granger because he had no idea what to say to her. Her life was so twisted and he had only added to her issues. No matter what people said, he was remorseful. He looked at all the people in the Hall and saw the things he had done and said to make their lives a living hell.

He only knew two things for sure. He was going to make amends. He didn't want to be the person he was. He also knew that people weren't going to be willing to forgive him so easily, despite the applause for his younger brother.

"Dray!" He heard his brother the moment he thought of him. Draco whirled around at the distressed voice. His brother, much unlike himself, was a happy, compassionate person. There was absolutely no reason for him to be sounding so upset on his first day at Hogwarts.

Draco ran to the source of the voice and saw two 6th year Ravenclaws standing over his brother. The second he saw blood on his brother's face, he saw red. His hands started shaking in his effort to contain himself from disintegrating the two where they stood.

"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Granger seemed to have noticed his ire and cut in before he could.

"Why do you care so much? Their family hurt you too."

"My brother had nothing to do with that and even if he did, that's no grounds for attacking a student."

"He's a year above is, you'd think he'd know how to defend himself."

"Consider yourself lucky that he didn't lift his wand." He was about to say more but before he could someone else intervened.

"Apologize and leave."

Weasley and Potter had shown up behind them and even though the comment wasn't directed at home Draco had a strong urge to comply.

The other two, however looked as if they were in a trance.

They turned to Alaric and they actually looked remorseful as they apologized and walked away.

Draco lurched forward in his confusion and flitted his hands about his brother's person.

"Why didn't you defend yourself, absolute moron? Only I get to hex you." Compared to the way he acted toward everyone else, no one would expect Draco Malfoy to be protective of anyone.

But, he'd be damned if anything happened to his family and he sit by watching.

"Ow! Watch it!" Rick exclaimed in pain when I touched near his mid stomach.

"Stop being a wuss, I barely touched you." Contradictory to his words, he was more gentle as he pried his brother's hands away to look at the injury.

There was a bruise on the lower part of his stomach that was starting to colour.

"I'll have Theo look at it later." The younger tried to deflect his older brother but that was not going to fly.

"Or, I could look at it now."

Granger seemed to get a look at the bruise that was quickly becoming purple before she started rummaging through a little purse.

She looked to find what she was looking for before handing him a tiny, clear jar with a jelly-like substance in it. "It's bruising cream. I've learned to keep it on me at all times. Apply generously every 2 hours and it'll heal in a day."

"I don't need-"

"Say thank you." Draco cut off his brother's rambling protests.

"I-" Draco shot Rick a look and he looked to resign himself to his fate. "Thank you for helping. All of you."

"Anytime."

Draco shared a look with Rick before exclaiming, "What the name of Morgana did you just do, Weasley?"

"Oh, it's a really basic empath skill."

"Empath?!"

"You can't just say that and expect people to understand ya know." Potter butted in, completely unfazed by what had just happened.

"Ron is an empath. That basically means that he feels people's emotions by his body mimicking them as his own. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds and it takes immense practice and skill not to pass out in crowds." Granger took pity on him and explained.

"I know what an empath is. What I find surprising is that someone like him can accomplish the task." He said snarkily, covering up the fact that he didn't actually know that. He made a mental note to ask Theo more about it. He hated being blindsided.

"Hey, someone like you can be an legilimens, people like us can do anything." Potter shot back immediately.

"Enough. It's getting late and I still have to figure out where McGonagall's office is and talk to her about my schedule. Also, I'm really worn out." Alexander seemed to have regained control after Granger's story.

"You really need to work on your stamina." Granger said.

"You quite enjoyed my stamina when we were together." He shot back.

Granger's lips twitched in amusement as she tried not to smile.

"I'm going to the kitchen to find some food before I turn into a flesh eating monster. Anyone wanna join?" She saw the looks on their faces and giggled. "You'll get used to me. Ciao."

"I'm coming with!" The other two-thirds of the trio chorused.

"Off they go." Alexander said.

"You mentioned having to go to McGonagall's office?" Draco asked.

"Oh, yeah. She needed all the exchange students to choose our electives, but I'm not sure as to where her office is." He said that like an opening to get to know each other, so Draco extended a metaphorical hand.

"Would you like me to show you? And on the way if you'd like, we could discuss your electives."

"I'd like that." Alexander shyly replied. Contrary to Draco's first impression, Alexander didn't seem to enjoy the spotlight that much.

Sure, he was playful and fun but he also seemed to be very shy around people he didn't know. Draco liked the fact that he was such an open book.

"We'll have to go to the Headmistress' tower. It's down that way."

As they walked, Draco attempted to get to know Alexander, with a questions game. One of them would ask a question, both of them would answer and repeat.

"Okay, basics first. Siblings?" Draco asked.

"Nope. Single child. I did however feel like Hermione's younger sister was almost family." came the reply. Alexander waited for Draco to answer.

"Just the one for me. I've kinda spent my whole life protecting him from the world so I've never wanted another."

"That's a lot more deep than I would have expected from you."

"What is that supposed to mean?! I can be philosophical!"

"I'm sure you can. Okay. You ready for the awkward questions?"

"Sure am."

"Last time you had sex?"

"A month ago."

"Hm. 2 weeks."

"Really?"

"What?!"

They talked, bantered, argued about Quidditch teams, and Draco found that he... really liked him. It was a moment like in a cheesy romance book where everything went right. They liked enough of the same things to have common aspects but not enough to be uninterested in each other.

"Well, we're here."

"Thank you for helping."

They tried to stall before Draco had to leave, but there really wasn't much to be done.

"I'm gonna... go."

"I have to meet McGonagall anyway."

"Okay. Bye."

Okay. Bye?! What was he a second year?

"Hey, Draco?"

Ander, as he told Draco to call him sounded very close, very suddenly. Draco turned around with his hands in his pockets and found himself being grabbed.

Ander pulled him in and looked Draco dead in the eyes. They were a very pretty green. Draco could count the freckles on his face. Ander looked at Draco's lips and back into his eyes, as if he was asking a question.

Draco nodded and my whole world shifted. Being kissed by Ander was different to anything he had ever done before. All of his experiences were all to gain something. Stress-relief, mostly.

But with Ander, it felt like he cared. Call him cheesy, but Draco loved it. Draco raked his fingers through Ander’s hair, but it was Ander who took Draco's face between his hands with his fingertips curling behind Draco's nape, and then they collided. Draco's hands slipped to press against Anders’s chest the moment their lips met, and it was the kind of kiss Draco had dreamed about forever. The first kiss was curious but brimming with pure want, and Ander pulled away with his forehead against Draco's, their noses brushing together as they both took a deep breath, like they needed to process what they were doing.

But Draco was all in.

They kissed again, this time without hesitation. Ander's lips were soft and he still smelled like warm vanilla, completely intoxicating. Trembling, Draco traced his tongue along Ander's bottom lip, and that seemed to do it for poor Ander. He inhaled sharply and pushed the two of them until Draco's back hit the wall, and it stole Draco’s breath. But never once did they stop kissing, both of them in too deeply to be the first to ask for a pause.

"God, I hate you." Draco said. Ander pulled away, out of breath and looked a little hurt, so he continued.

"Why are you the male lead in almost every romance book known to man?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've had sex, I've kissed a lot of people, but you're the cliché. You kissed me so good I don't wanna go." Draco realized how whiny his voice sounded towards the end and he straightened up, clearing his throat.

Ander just chuckled at Draco's sudden awkwardness and said, "You're gonna miss curfew and I don't want you getting into trouble. Yet."

Draco walked back to the Slytherin common room feeling very unlike himself. It was like he was floating on clouds after the war. All the burden and pressure to be perfect and never crack had lifted.

He didn't need to put up a façade anymore...

Maybe he could finally be himself and be happy.