He'd been on the Inquisitorial Squad. And he'd been captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. Fred and George had shoved him into the Vanishing Cabinet during Fifth Year.
Hermione barely knew him. He barely knew her.
When had she known him to the extent that he would expect her to recognize him?
While she was thinking, Hermione laid aside the piece of paper her spasming fingers had wrecked.
The Malfoys were hosting a New Year's Party in the manor. She would have had no idea if Montague and Malfoy hadn't appeared.
She stood and went to the door, hesitating. She wanted to see people with her own eyes but the thought also terrified her.
If anyone saw her they could do anything they wanted to her unless Malfoy showed up and stopped them. Her sharp, instinctive relief at his arrival earlier unsettled her in more ways than she wanted to think about.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
She stood at the door for several minutes before hesitantly opening it. She crept down the hall and slipped into one of the disused servants passages, winding her way toward the main wing of the house.
Gradually the sound of a string quartet began to reach her ears accompanied by the buzz of conversations. She stopped and listened.
Music.
She hadn't heard music in years.
She paused and leaned against the wall to absorb it. Shutting her eyes and breathing to the tempo of the strings.
She had forgotten how it felt to hear music.
After fifteen minutes she remembered herself and continued on her way. She cracked open a door and peeked into a darkened hallway to see if it was clear. She was about to step out when she heard a rustle of fabric and a woman's giggle. Hermione stepped sharply back and watched Astoria dart around the corner grasping someone's wrist. A male wrist most distinctly not belonging to Malfoy.
Hermione couldn't see clearly in the darkness but the build of the man was wrong. Broader and shorter. And not pale enough or blond.
Astoria leaned back against the wall and the man closed in on her until Hermione couldn't see the blonde witch at all. Hermione's eyes widened as the giggling gave way to breathy gasps.
She hadn't-well, it wasn't necessarily surprising-Hermione just hadn't expect to encounter it.
Suddenly two, milk white legs became visible as they were wrapped around the man's hips and the noises took a turn from gasping to moaning.
Hermione found herself weirdly fascinated until a horrifying thought occurred to her-
Malfoy would find it in her memory.
She stepped sharply back and fled silently up the stairs. She took another route toward the ballroom.
She had gotten quite good at navigating most of the manor. As long as she didn't rush herself and used the walls as a touchstone she could go almost anywhere.
On the third floor there was a cramped, twisty little stairway that led to a balcony alcove over the ballroom. Hermione assumed the party was located in the ballroom.
She'd hoped to go somewhere where she could listen to conversation but Astoria's hallway affair had interfered. Hermione replayed what she had witnessed. The act itself wasn't surprising but the indiscretion seemed excessive. Cheating on her husband in a hallway filled with his family's portraits. Even if it were an open-marriage the overtness seemed impolitic.
Chapter 13
Start from the beginning
