A/N
Hopefully this double update and the fact that this second chapter is so much better will make up for how boring the last one was. Anyways I love you all and I'm feeling nostalgic and a little bit sad because there's only one chapter left after this one.
--
It felt wrong, to be getting off the Hogwarts express and have nobody there to greet him. It had been the norm for his childhood, to climb off the train and search for the familiar head of his mother's warm blonde hair.
Instead of being engulfed in a hug and told how much he was missed, Draco was greeted by dirty looks and thinly veiled sneers by anyone who noticed the lone Malfoy walking through the large crowd. It was something he'd grown used to after his first outing post-Azkaban and house arrest. He supposed he couldn't blame them for their hostility, but it grew annoying how everyone reached for their wand when they noticed him, even if he understood why.
The skin of his dark mark burned with shame beneath his sleeve under the public gaze. How he longed to be back in his dorm with Granger, firewhiskey in hand while she proofread her essays aloud. Instead, Draco straitened his shoulders and held himself proudly -like a proper Malfoy- and waltzed through the crowds of people, trunk floating behind him as he headed for the nearest floo.
--
Hurried footsteps could be heard on the marble outside the receiving room as the green flames died around him. Stepping out of the fire and brushing ash from the shoulders of his jacket, Draco tried to suppress his excitement as the sound of his mother's heeled steps grew nearer. As he shed his travelling cloak and sent it floating over to a rack in the corner of the room, the grand double doors flew open so aggressively the sound of the handles connecting with the wall echoed around the room.
He would have been more concerned about the walls of his ancestral home if not for the distraction of his usually cool and composed mother rushing across the room and throwing herself into his arms, happy tears spilling down her cheeks. It was jarring; Narcissa Malfoy did not run, nor did she cry. A proper lady walked with planned purpose, never in a rush to be anywhere, and crying was meant to only occur in the solitude of locked and silenced rooms. Yet here she stood, tears dampening his jumper as she clung to him like he may disappear at any moment.
Recovering from his shock, Draco returned his mother's hug as well as her words of happiness to be together again. Truthfully, he'd been worried about her alone in the manor; elves tended to make bad company, even the free ones they now employed.
A while later the two of them sat together in the garden, his mother's favourite place on the property as well as one of the only areas unscathed by Voldemort's habitation of the manor. They sat across a small table from one another, his left arm between them as she examined the intricate inkwork that obscured his dark mark. The skin felt sensitive beneath her touch, not from the new tattoo thanks to a murtlap essence-soaked towel, but rather likely from its lack of exposure to anything other than the arm band he'd used to hide it since the war.
"And you say the Lovegood girl did this?" she asked finally. The revelation of the inkwork had stunned the usually composed woman into silence for quite a while. Draco understood that, he'd said nothing for the better part of an hour when the Ravenclaw had finished and had simply stared at it until his eyes burned and struggled to focus.
"Yes mother." He answered, uncertain how she was going to react. Would she be mad he'd obscured the last reminder of their former Lord? Or horrified that a blood traitor had seen fit to touch a Malfoy?
"It's lovely, she'd a very talented young witch." Was all she said, which was both much more and also significantly less than he'd expected. She wasn't wrong, however. The design -which Lovegood had told him was all Granger's creation and that the Ravenclaw was simply putting it on the canvas- was so intricate he'd yet to appreciate the entirety of it in the twenty-or-so hours since he'd received it. The design was much larger than he'd anticipated, starting just above his elbow and extending down to past his wrist and over the top of his hand. The ink also wrapped around the entirety of his arm, not simply his inner forearm where the mark lay underneath the layers. It was nearly impossible to see the ugly thing under the layers of magical plants -an homage to his love of herbology that he greatly appreciated- she'd drawn over his skin.
"Yes," he agreed, not taking his eyes off the new ink "she certainly is extraordinary." He said absently, his mind filled with honey brown eyes and flashes of gold, his senses flooded with the smell of vanilla and the taste of honey.
The Malfoy matriarch gave him a calculating look at his tone, to which Draco responded by shuttering his expressions away with his occlumency. His mother -being an extraordinary occlumens herself- recognized his shift in demeanor and gave him a disapproving look. Being familiar with the signs of an impending motherly lecture in the straightening of her already perfect posture, Draco slumped back in the chair in resignation.
"You're still hiding yourself away I see." A disapproving frown accompanied her observation.
"What I am or am not doing in regard to my occlumency is really none of your business Mother." He responded shortly.
"As your mother, Draco Lucius Malfoy, you better believe that it very much is my business." Her voice took on a venomous tone, a reminder that while she may have played the part of simpering housewife well, his mother was a Slytherin and a Black. "You will also remember in the future to take care of the tone you attempt to use with me young man," she continued, her voice dangerous and calm "I am your mother and until you turn 19 and come of age, you will treat me with the respect I earned when I pushed you out of my body and gave you life and magic."
Thoroughly scolded, Draco studied the plush carpet under his feet as he uttered an apology.
"Now, as I have stressed before, you cannot keep your occlumency up my Dragon. Your magic -Black magic, Malfoy magic- is not meant to hide away. It will eat away at you if you continue to lock yourself up, it will eat itself."
"You don't mean-" he started to interrupt, horrified, but a thunderous look shot in his direction had the question dying on his tongue. "Sorry."
"Why do you think the house of Black has always bound ourselves to other, lesser magical beings. Did you not think it abnormal the vast number of house elves past generations went through when elves are meant to live significantly longer than wizards?"
Truthfully, he'd never thought about it, beyond the fact that Blacks were generally batshit crazy and cruel to everyone including family. He communicated as much with a silent shake of his head in answer to the question.
"It is because the Black magic is unstable, cannibalistic due to generations of marriages between too-close relatives." She made a face as she said it. "What I'm trying to say is that you cannot continue with the occlumency or you will destroy your magical core, occlude yourself until your organs shut down or you turn yourself into a squib."
"Is there no other solution?" Draco countered, horrified by all the outcomes, but uncertain if he would even be able to stop occluding anymore.
"Well you could do what my dear sister Bella used to do and bind yourself with other beings whose magical core you can steal."
No amount of occlumency could have kept the horrified look off his face at her words.
"What did you think your aunt was doing during the war with the barbaric knife she carried around? Cutting people up for fun? Surely you don't think she would resort to such muggle behaviour without reason, never mind that she was completely barmy."
Draco was stunned silent, his brain rapidly putting together all the pieces of the puzzle. Granger's torture by his aunt, the scar, her legillemency skills, the Black knife he remembers his aunt throwing across the room at his childhood nanny-elf Dobby while it dripped Granger's blood across their drawing room, the stupid magic snake in her head spouting blood purist garbage, their potions project. It all fit together so perfectly, like some higher being had been trying to shove the facts right under his daft nose for months.
More importantly, he can fix it.
--
Draco hesitated outside the doors to the formal dining room on Christmas eve. He really had no reason to be so apprehensive, it was just a meal with his mother like they'd had multiple times a day since he'd been home. It was the only thing he'd done all break other than work on the curse breaking potion for Granger. Yet something about this meal had his stomach twisting in knots the way it used to when he'd been forced to share a table with Nagini.
He was considering turning around and abandoning dinner altogether, when Mopsy popped up beside him and slammed the doors open in front of him with a snap of her wrinkled fingers. With a heaving sigh, Draco straightened his shoulders and entered the room.
"Son, how nice of you to grace us with your presence." The drawling tone was one he wasn't expecting to hear, ever again. Snapping his head to the side, his gaze was reflected back to him in another pair of cold grey eyes. His father was up there on the list of the last people he'd hoped or anticipated sharing Christmas dinner with ever again.
"Father, your attendance this holiday was wholly unexpected." He recovered quickly, nodding his head in the direction of the older Malfoy before taking a seat across the table from his mother -he absently noticed the table was set for six rather than just three-. The smile she sent in his direction was forced, and behind her expression Draco recognized the familiar dullness of her occlumency walls.
"Yes well, some old friends of mine in the ministry agreed that I couldn't possibly miss such an important family dinner." Ah bribery, Draco wondered how much Malfoy gold this family dinner was costing. His father waved a hand at the nervous-looking Mopsy who was standing in the far corner. The elf snapped her fingers, once again opening the heavy doors to reveal who he recognized as the Greengrass girls and a man Draco assumed was their father.
The elder sister -whom despite being in his year Draco was only passing acquaintances with- had a bored expression on her face, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else which Draco wholeheartedly agreed with. The younger one however, was practically bouncing in her too-tall high heels with barely contained excitement. Draco had to consciously stop himself from rolling his eyes at the younger girl, he'd always found her annoying with the way she would follow him around, or giggle every time he even accidentally looked in her direction.
"Draco" his father spoke from his seat at the head of the table "I'm certain you know the young Greengrasses from school; Daphne and Astoria. And their father, Lord Hyperion Greengrass."
"Of course, father" he answered, nodding in greeting to all three of them as the family settled at the remaining empty place settings around the table. "May I ask what is so important about this dinner? Forgive my ignorance but I cannot help but notice that there seems to be more than just family at our family dinner."
"That's where you are wrong son," Lord Greengrass answered, Draco noticed in his peripherals how his younger daughter bounced in her seat while the older rolled her eyes and slouched in her own. "This is the first of what I hope will be many future family dinners."
Shit.
Discussion!
Guys I'm almost done. I feel excited because I want you all to experience the ending I've had in mind since I wrote chapter 1 almost nine months ago, but I also feel sad because I don't want Hermione and Draco's story to be over yet. I'll probably do an epilogue and maybe a few bonus scenes when it's all over, but I am excited to announce that I've started another story already for when I finish this one. I may include a sneak peek in a future update on here if you think you might be interested! I love you all and thank you for reading this far and for voting/leaving comments.
Also yes, I am the higher being who's been shoving the hints under noses about what's going on with Hermione and the legillemency. I love leaving little hints that seem like nothing at first and then kind of scream at you if you reread. It's my absolute favourite fanfic trope so if you guys know any that do that please drop some recommendations!