Returning to Sanity | By : AchillesTheGeek Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31212 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3 |
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or films, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
73 Returning to Family Matters
Sunday 6 September
Harry woke up when Draco came back into their room.
"Sorry," Draco said, "didn't mean to wake you."
"S'alright," Harry said groggily. "Where were you?"
"With Hermione. She's not well, so I'm getting her some pain reliever."
"Oh, OK," Harry said, and lay down again; he was asleep again before Draco had retrieved his potion, so the blond was careful to shut the door quietly behind him.
When Harry woke again, he was alone. He could see by the light that it was still rather early, and, at first, he thought the earlier episode had been a dream; but then he realised he had woken alone in his bed, which didn't happen that often these days.
"Draco?" he called, in case the blond had simply gone into the bathroom. But there was no reply. He must have gone to help Hermione. Good, Harry thought, as he snuggled down again.
When Draco got back to the Common Room, Hermione was no longer there, so he quietly ascended the stairs to her tower and knocked gently on her door.
"Come in, Draco," she called softly.
"How did you know it was me?" he asked as he entered the room.
"Who else would be up so early on a Sunday?"
"Good point," Draco said, closing the door softly and handing her a phial filled with a grass-coloured potion. Hermione, knowing that most potions tasted absolutely awful, downed it in a single gulp.
"Mmm," she said, as a tiny bit of the flavour hit her tongue, "hey! That doesn't taste too bad!"
"Yeah," Draco replied. "It turned out that for once I could add some ingredients purely for taste – so there's peppermint in it, and nothing that will react to it. Also, it's safe to shrink it, which is useful for hiding it from one's boyfriend. Here," he said, taking a very small box out of his pocket and enlarging it before handing it to her. "You can take one every six hours if you need to; but the book said most people find one a day sufficient after the first couple of days."
"Thanks," Hermione said, a warm smile on her face. "Hey, I do feel a lot better! How's your Arithmancy coming along?"
They chatted for a little while, before Draco apologised that he really shouldn't let Harry wake up without him; nor let anyone see him in the one of the girls' Towers.
"I shouldn't worry," Hermione said. "It's still early; no-one will be about."
But someone else was up, and had witnessed the two going up the South Tower together. As she padded back up the stairs to the West Tower, Eva Thillin's mind was full of ideas about how to make the best use of this development.
Harry fell back down, not having the energy to get out of bed yet. He thought back over the last few days, using the rare solitude to try to get his mind ready for the day. All the stuff Draco had told him about bonding rituals had been rather overwhelming. He had, after all, been brought up by the Dursleys, for whom the only form of bonding was a marriage between a man and a woman, and the only choice of ritual was between a church wedding and one at the registrar's office, which he gathered was much less acceptable. Not that the matter had been discussed very much; he just remembered when one of the neighbour's daughters, two months pregnant, had got married at the registrar's office and Petunia had been very sniffy about it, saying that of course the girl couldn't have a "proper wedding in a white dress". She hadn't elaborated, and he hadn't dared ask her what she meant; that would almost certainly have earned him a beating for "questioning his elders and betters". But he learnt eventually that the white dress meant the bride was a virgin; and the "proper wedding" would have been in church. Vernon and Petunia had never been to a church, that he could remember; but apparently it was the only place to get married, in their eyes.
So it came as quite an eye-opener for him to learn that there was a bewildering variety of different rituals for bonding in the Wizarding world.
There was one supposedly reserved for virginal, pure-blood couples. Rather like getting married in a white dress, he supposed. Happily, as he was a half-blood, and Hermione was Muggle-born, they would not be looked down on if they didn't use it. Well, not as much as pure-bloods would, Draco had explained rather diffidently.
Then there were different rituals depending on the statuses of the families in question: there were special rituals when both families were part of the exclusive group of pure-blood families, the so-called "Sacred Twenty-Eight"; or when only one was; when neither was, there were special forms for other pure-blooded families, or for half-bloods or Muggle-borns. On top of these, there were subtle variations depending on which family was seen as socially superior; and then if there was any creature blood involved, that would vary the ritual again.
As both Malfoys and Weasleys were part of the "Sacred Twenty-Eight", but neither Potters nor Grangers were – the latter being Muggles, of course, so not considered at all – the number of rituals was mercifully cut down. But when it came to the 'socially superior' part, Harry refused to have anything to do with it. As far as he was concerned, their bonding was to be a partnership of equals, which seemed to be the one thing that the rules couldn't cope with. In the end, they had actually drawn up their own bonding ritual, which they would need to discuss with the Headmistress. And Harry rather hoped that Ron and Hermione would agree to use it too; that way, perhaps they could punch a hole in the insanity of pure-blood customs that insisted on ranking people all the time.
He pulled out the ritual they had agreed on, and read through it again. He was actually quite proud of it; they had, he felt, managed to strike a good balance between honouring old customs and respecting the new ideas of equality that he so longed to see take root in the Wizarding world.
Still, this afternoon's meeting would be key. He decided they'd need to sit down with Ron and Hermione this morning and talk it through. In the meantime, as Draco hadn't got back yet, he decided to get up and get on with the day, especially as his stomach was telling him it was about breakfast time.
Sunday morning breakfast tended to be a much more laid back affair than other days; people were wont to arrive at any time during the morning, and the elves were happy to provide food whenever it was required. Knowing this, Harry had waited for Draco to return to their room before they went down to the Great Hall for breakfast together. Happily, it was not a long wait; and so they got there quite early, to find the Hall sparsely populated. Harry was rather grateful for this. While having the full student body there was fun, and made for a vibrant community, meals over the last few days had been very loud, especially compared to when the Hall contained only Eighth Years and staff.
To Draco's delight, Blaise was there, and now openly sitting next to Angelique, and he sat next to his dark Italian friend. The pair of them looked so happy together that he was sure everyone would know at once that they were now courting.
Harry sat down and started plating up food before turning to the rest of the table.
"Morning Blaise, Angelique," he said. "You look well today. Good day studying yesterday?"
Draco smirked. Not everyone, then.
"Yes thank you, 'Arry," Blaise replied, his Italian accent more pronounced than usual.
At this point, Ron arrived, and taking one look at Blaise and Angelique, broke into a big grin.
"Congratulations!" he said.
"Zank you, Mr Weasley," Angelique replied. "We are very 'appy."
"Please call me Ron," the redhead replied. "After all, we are fellow students; and Blaise is part of the gang."
"Zank you," Angelique replied, beaming. Before now, the French girls had found it hard to crack the famous British reserve; but it seemed that Blaise had done it for her. "And you will call me Angelique, yes?"
"Delighted," Ron said, helping himself to bacon and eggs from the chafing dishes on the table. "Um, has anyone seen Hermione?"
"Yes," Draco replied, "I heard her moving about this morning. She seemed to have a bit of an upset stomach, so I gave her a mild potion for it and suggested she sleep it off."
Ron's eyes went wide at this, but Draco nodded at him gently, trying to convey that he knew the need for care, and that all was well.
"Thanks," Ron said, as he visibly relaxed, and Draco knew he had got the message.
Harry looked around the table at everyone as a couple more of the Beauxbatons contingent arrived for breakfast. He had not missed that there was something going on, and Ron and Draco seemed to be in on whatever it was; but had no idea what it could be.
"So," he said, "Blaise and Angelique? Congratulations? You guys are together now?"
"Yes," Blaise said, a huge smile on his face.
"OK," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "What else am I missing?"
"Oh, nothing, Harry," Draco replied. "Nothing at all."
As she took her seat, Eva Thillin added this to the plan that was forming in her head. The possibilities for mischief seemed to be falling into her lap.
After breakfast, most of the eighth year students returned to their rooms. They had found over the last few days that the rest of the castle was rather noisy, and not really that conducive to study. Of course, that was fair enough for the newly-returned students; but the eighth years with exams coming up needed to get away into some quiet.
It was about morning-tea time that there came a knock on Harry and Draco's door.
"Come in!" the two youths chorused together, and the door opened to admit Ron and Hermione.
"Um, I hope we're not interrupting, but we hoped we could have a little chat with you," Hermione said.
Harry and Draco both smiled.
"Of course you're not interrupting," Harry said, as he got up from his desk and lead them over to a set of chairs they had grouped around a coffee table in front of the window looking over the lake; "or, at least, if you are, it's a good thing. Winky!"
The little house-elf popped into the room.
"Yes, Master Harry Potter!" she said excitedly. "How can Winky be serving Master Harry Potter?"
"Could we please have some tea?" he asked. "And, if it's not too much trouble, perhaps some cakes?"
"Of course, Master Harry Potter!" she replied, beaming at being asked to do something well within her capacities. "Winky is honoured to be serving Master Harry Potter!"
And with that, she popped away.
Hermione sighed.
"All right," she said to Harry, "I can see that you're making her happy. I'm sorry if I've been rude about it before now; but I still feel uncomfortable about them being treated like slaves."
"Point taken," Harry replied. "But I find 'kindness and understanding' goes a long way. And she is paid."
Hermione nodded. She wasn't going to argue the point, not when she had more important matters to discuss. And she was feeling rather apprehensive. She knew that Harry's family were very bigoted indeed, and would no doubt have been very scathing about sex before marriage. And while that didn't mean Harry was, it was clear that some of their prejudices had hurt him deeply, and she only hoped that this wouldn't rub salt in any such wound.
A couple of minutes later a very large tea-tray appeared on the coffee table, and Ron and Draco's eyes went very wide at the mountain of sweet treats that Winky had placed on it.
"PREGNANT?" Harry said sharply. "Oh my! Hermione! Ron! That's wonderful news! When is it due?"
Hermione beamed. "Oh Harry," she said, "I was so worried you'd be upset that we got pregnant before getting married, and that we didn't tell you."
Harry looked puzzled. "But … you've told me now," he said. "And I would be a hypocrite if I was bothered about pre-marital sex …"
Ron blushed deep crimson. "Ah, thanks mate, but too much information … Anyway, the baby is about five weeks, due some time in the last week of April. We weren't going to tell anyone until October; but we just couldn't keep it a secret from you any longer. And anyway, Draco seems to have worked it out all by himself."
Draco gave a rather self-satisfied smirk. "Pansy clued me in on it," he admitted. "She and Theo are going out together, and she suspects she might be pregnant, though it hasn't been confirmed yet. But she reckons it makes her more sensitive to other women's hormones."
"Oh," Hermione said, "I gathered it was certain? So, why are you carrying pregnancy-safe pain potions, then?"
"Better safe than sorry," Draco replied, with a broad grin. "Wouldn't you say?"
And Hermione, blushing, had to agree.
"Hang on," Harry said. "Those pain potions you were brewing were specially for Hermione?"
"Yes," Draco said, hesitating slightly; where was his Raven going with this?
"Draco Malfoy," Harry continued, "have I ever told you that you are a wonderful man?"
And now it was Draco's turn to blush.
Hermione sighed with pleasure at seeing her first Wizarding friend so happy and so loved. And then she remembered some less pleasant news she had for them, and her face fell. All at once, she started to cry, and was instantly surrounded by Ron's strong arms and worried expressions of concern.
"No, I'm alright," she reassured them. "It's just … Oh Harry, I'm sorry. Lucius and I have been corresponding about male pregnancy ever since … well, since we knew you'd be together. But we haven't found anything."
Harry patted her hand. "Doesn't matter, Hermione," he said.
"I know," she said weakly. "It's just …" She couldn't bring herself to say it, but she felt that, out of all the people she knew, he really should have children of his own. Children to love and cherish and prove to himself that all the hell of the past he had been through with the Dursleys was dead and buried.
Hermione took out a lace handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. Ron, seeing that things were getting a bit soppy, took the minotaur by the horns, saying "so, what are you two doing about the bonding ritual?"
"Ah!" Draco said. "We had a long talk about that, didn't we, Harry?"
"No," his fiancé replied, "it wasn't a long talk, it was a looooong talk! Why are there so many different rituals? And none of them fit!"
"Well, you are allowed to build your own," Ron replied. "I guess lots of people have done that over the years."
"And we have too," Draco added. "We weren't going to go for the Virgin Ritual – doesn't really apply with two blokes anyway, usually; and Harry wasn't having any of the superior/inferior social standing stuff; so we wrote our own ritual of equals."
"Ooh," Hermione said, "that sounds good. Can we use it too?"
"Of course you can," Harry replied. "Here, read it and see what you think."
Ron and Hermione spent the next fifteen minutes going through the ritual that Harry and Draco had designed, while Draco spent the time making a bit more of a dent in the mountain of pastries they had been given. Harry watched him eat, bemused; it was now his turn to worry what his friends would think, and whether the ritual was good enough.
But Ron put down the papers and blew all those doubts away.
"This is brilliant," he said.
"It is," Hermione agreed. "So, what do we have to do now?"
"Oh, not much," Draco replied, a touch sarcastically. "Just convince the Headmistress to use it, and then avoid being railroaded into something else by my mother…"
Headmistress McGonagall read through the papers before her with interest. When she got to the end, she looked up at the four students in front of her.
"You're sure that you all want this?" she asked, and they all nodded decisively.
"Well," she said, "I don't see that there's any problem with this. It's actually a fairly straightforward variation of the Scottish 'endless love' ritual. Should I consider that perhaps you have reasons of your own for avoiding some of the other possibilities?"
"We didn't want to have any ritual that wasn't about the parties being on an equal footing," Draco replied smoothly. "And of course, as men, we didn't really think the whole 'Virgin' ritual applied. And then we all wanted to use the same ritual for both bondings."
"I see," the Headmistress replied crisply, and Harry rather suspected that she did indeed see. After all, she had worked at a boarding school for her whole career and had probably seen it all. "Well, I understand that your parents want to meet us at the Manor to discuss the happy day?"
"Yes," Draco said, casting a Tempus. "Oh, we are in good time; mother said to be there at three o'clock, so we have fifteen minutes."
"Very good," the Headmistress said. "Do you wish to leave directly? I'm sure she won't mind if we're early."
Lucius consulted the letter Adolphus Greengrass had written to him once more. It was entirely proper and correct; but then, everything that man did was. He even seemed to walk around as though there was a broomstick up his arse, all straight up and with a pained expression on his face. So it had come as no surprise to Lucius, once he had received Draco's owl on Wednesday night, that he received one from Greengrass on Thursday morning "begging to discuss matters of mutual concern and benefit".
Mutual benefit! He thought wryly. Greengrass stood to lose far more than Lucius did if he should choose to ostracize the Greengrasses. On the other hand, if he could keep the man on side, that probably would shore up his position to the point immensely. You could never be owed too many favours, Lucius had learnt over many years of political life. So, he had decided, he would play nice; but not too nice. He had delayed for a day before replying, and then delayed meeting the man until three o'clock this afternoon. He had, he hoped, judged it just right, to give the impression that the matter was not so important that he needed to drop everything to attend to it, while at the same time still deserving of being dealt with reasonably promptly.
He had only learnt this morning that the wedding party would be coming over today, also at three o'clock. He had mixed feelings about that. It was a shame that he had to miss the discussion – for putting off the meeting with Greengrass was unthinkable – but on the other hand it would drive home to the man that they were dead serious about Harry and Draco's bonding.
Lucius was still ruminating when he heard Mappy's familiar knock on the door.
"Come in, Mappy!" he called. "Is he here yet?"
"Mister Adolphus Greengrass is being arrived in the main reception room," the elf replied from the door. "And Mistress Headmistress Professor McGonagall is being arriving in Mistress Narcissa's study, along with the young masters, Master Ron Weasley, and Mistress Hermione Granger. Mappy is being making sure the Mistress knows Mister Greengrass is being here."
"Thank you," Lucius said as he rose to his feet, thanking his lucky stars that the two parties had not come in contact. He knew that Narcissa would keep the others away from Adolphus; their meeting here just now would certainly cause bad feeling. "I shall go and fetch him. I suppose we had better have some wine. A claret, please, good, but not too good."
"Yes Master Lucius!" the elf replied, positively beaming with joy at the fact that Lucius was allowing him to choose the wine. The little creature apparated away, and Lucius grinned himself. There was something so refreshing about the innocent pleasure they got whenever the family put trust in them. . He had never noticed such things before; as he walked to the reception room, he wondered idly why he did now.
Perhaps it was because the Dark Lord was gone, so there was no need to live in constant fear.
Perhaps he was simply more inclined to, having more time to observe such things.
And perhaps, and he felt sure this was closest to the mark, it was because his family had been invaded by the loving, generous, warm-hearted Harry Potter, and, whether from the Debt or just from his sheer innocence , those traits were starting to rub off on the Malfoys.
He smirked as he thought how Greengrass would react if he knew that!
The party from Hogwarts arrived in Narcissa's study to find the lady sitting down to tea with Molly Weasley and Margaret Granger. The was, quite naturally, an avalanche of greetings, and McGonagall was pleased to notice that the three women greeted all of the students very warmly. It warmed her heart to think that, in the old terms, the four students represented a pure-blood, a blood-traitor, a half-blood and a Muggle-born; and yet the seven other people in the room were all clearly just one big extended family. Even Harry, not related to any of the others, was evidently being claimed as a son by both Narcissa and Molly, and she could see with her own eyes how much it meant to the boy. Her heart went out to the poor boy who had been treated so shabbily by both the Muggle and magical worlds, and was now proving to be one of the main agitators for understanding of the former and reform in the latter. Once again, she was sensible of the great honour it was to be asked to officiate at the wedding of Harry Potter. And Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, she told herself. But, being honest, Harry was her favourite.
She was drawn out of her reverie by Narcissa offering her a cup of tea, and they sat down to discuss the rituals and the timetable for the day, just under three weeks away. They discussed the bonding rituals at considerable length; Margaret Granger, of course, had no idea at all of the subtle complexities of bonding in the Wizarding world, and so a great deal had to be explained to her.
Happily, this seemed to work out well; Draco walked her carefully through the ritual they had chosen. She was quite impressed with his patience as he explained the significance of the ritual objects, how everything, place, time, clothing, position, was important to the ritual and thought through with care.
McGonagall watched closely to see what the other two witches thought of the choice of bonding ritual. Happily, it seemed that they were quite happy with what Draco had written; of course, he insisted it was a joint effort, but McGonagall had read essays written by them all and she could see Draco Malfoy's hand all through the ritual. But there was, at least, no suggestion that they should use one of the existing rituals, which pleased her. While Draco had a convincing reason for avoiding the virginal rituals, McGonagall had her suspicions, and, if they were correct, the last thing she wanted to do was have them voiced and cause hurt for Miss Granger.
Margaret asked specifically about colours; clearly, from what she said, wearing a white dress was important to her. Draco explained that, as part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, he and Ron would wear silver, and that Harry and Hermione would wear gold as the matching colour (which she didn't quite understand, but perhaps it was a muggle thing as Margaret didn't ask for any explanation). Apparently, this satisfied her, and there was no more discussion on the matter.
McGonagall explained her own role in the proceedings; From Margaret's questions, it was clear that she expected the Headmistress to occupy some sort of religious role, so she explained carefully that she had been chosen, not because of a religious standing, but because, as Headmistress of Hogwarts, she was both a person of high standing in the Magical Community and very interested in all four of the students; and as Housemistress of Gryffindor, she had been particularly concerned for the three students in her House.
"And, I might add, being Housemistress of Gryffindor, I have always kept a very watchful eye on the Slytherins who were most antagonistic."
It took a couple of seconds before anyone realised that the old witch had a smile in the corners of her mouth. It was the first time that Narcissa had known her old Transfiguration teacher to be anything other than completely serious; and then everyone else watched astonished as her admiration for the sheer effrontery of making such a statement inside Malfoy Manor had her tossing her head back and roaring with laughter.
"Oh," she said when she composed herself, "Minerva, I do believe we deserved that. Shall we go and see the pavilion where the ceremony will be taking place?"
As they entered the study, Lucius could see that Adolphus was rather nervous and trying to hide it, so he offered a small gesture of peace by inviting the man to sit in the rather comfortable chairs by the window, and offering him some wine. Lucius's trust was well-placed; Mappy seemed to have an excellent nose for exactly the right wine: pleasant, but not excellent. Adolphus sipped it appreciatively, and some of the nervousness seemed to fall off him.
"Now," Lucius said once they were comfortably settled, "what can I do for you, Adolphus?"
The other man looked at him warily. He had hoped that Lucius would make this easy; so far the signs had looked good, but now it seemed that was not to be.
"Ah," he said. "Um. I mean, no doubt by now Draco has filled you in on the events between him and Astoria."
"I am aware that Astoria has suggested that the Malfoy family has, how did she put it?" Lucius made a show of trying to remember, then continued, "'hitched its star to Potter ' were the words, I believe. And then, I understand, she attacked Draco with a spell to cause damage to the skin. Further to these events, I am told that you suggested there was a contract of marriage between your daughter and my son, something we both know to be false; and then you reminded my son of the obligation to provide an heir. Is that all you were referring to?"
Throughout his little speech, Lucius had kept his voice calm and cold, and the cumulative effect of the recitation of all the offenses one after the other had Greengrass breaking out in a cold sweat. And the last accusation, following on from the others, really hurt. That he had had the temerity to remind another man's heir of his duty was one of the more serious breaches of pure-blood etiquette.
"Er," he said quietly, "there was also an allegation of dark magic. Look, Lucius," he continued quickly, "I know it's bad. But we pure-bloods have to stick together, especially now. I'm very sorry, and retract the suggestions I made unreservedly."
"Good," Lucius said, allowing the tiniest bit of warmth to creep into his voice. "However …"
He left it hanging there for a second, and, as he had expected, Greengrass couldn't stand the rising tension.
"Yes?" he blurted out.
"My son and Mr Potter are engaged; they will be having a bonding session here in September. And Ron Weasley, the pure-blood, will be marrying the Muggle-born Hermione Granger on the same day. Indeed, all four of them are currently at the Manor, discussing arrangements with my wife. We need to stick together, you say; we need to move with the times, I reply. And tell me, Adolphus, what do you know about Debts of Magical Emancipation?"
Greengrass looked a little stunned at the abrupt change of subject, but pulled himself together a bit.
"Well, they have something to do with having bonds on your magic broken, so incurring a debt to whoever sets you free. Rather ancient history, though, surely? No-one has had the power to cast a full magic binding curse for centuries."
"The Dark Lord did," Lucius replied directly, and Greengrass's eyes went round as he began to guess the point.
"He bound my magic, and Draco's," Lucius confirmed. "And you can probably guess who removed the binding?"
"Potter," Greengrass said, almost groaning the word as he realised just exactly how powerful the young wizard must be to have removed such a spell.
"Indeed," Lucius replied drily. "You accused us of hitching on to Potter; I hope, you are sufficiently acquainted with the consequences of Debts of Magical Emancipation to understand that in fact we had very little choice in the matter. But I confess that the results have been very encouraging. Times are changing, Adolphus; we have to change too, if we are going to be at the forefront, giving the lead to our society."
Adolphus's face had been getting tighter and tighter; he had begun to think that Lucius had lost his spine altogether, and owing Potter a debt must be hard to live with. But at the last statement, he perked up. All right, he thought, we're still going to be on top where we belong.
Out loud, he replied, "I see. So we're going to just accept these changes?"
"Not at all," Lucius replied. "We're going to guide them."
Greengrass let out a low sigh. The price of staying friends with the Malfoys was clear; the question was, was he willing to pay it? Though really, the truth was that he had no choice.
"All right," he said, softly. Then, taking his courage in both hands, he went on, "but, what about this Debt? Is that why Draco is marrying Potter?"
"Perhaps, when it was fresh, it drew them together," Lucius allowed. "But the more we interact with Harry, the more we find ourselves warming to him. He already feels like one of the family."
Greengrass wasn't entirely happy with this answer; but it seemed like Lucius was forgiving him, so he thought better of making a song and dance about it. Clearly, the marriage was set in stone and Astoria had no chance with Draco, so best to leave it. At the end of the day, there was no point in flogging a dead Thestral, he decided.
"Well, I suppose, if they're here, I suppose I should pay my respects," he said.
And start getting back in Draco's favour, Lucius thought; but it was not a criticism, he admired the man's chutzpah.
"That's the spirit!" he said, as he stood and led the way out to Narcissa's study.
As they were about to make their way to Narcissa's study, Dippy knocked on the door.
"Excuse me Master Lucius," she said when he had bade her enter, "but Mistress Narcissa is asking me to be telling you theys is going to the pavilion."
"Thank you, Dippy," Lucius replied, much to Greengrass's surprise. While Lucius clocked the surprise, and guessed that it had to do with his treatment of the elf, he decided to leave it be. If the man asked, he would explain that this was part of the changing times, and losing some of the pure-blood arrogance would go a long way towards making that change pleasant; if he didn't ask, he could work it out for himself. Nonetheless, Lucius did not wish to discourage Greengrass' show of willing, so led him out of the house and into the grounds.
The pavilion in question was a long, beautiful white building at the far side of the main lawn. The sides were a series of arches, spelled so that the walls between them could be removed, and at the present time, they were absent, so that the day's light breeze was blowing through the room, and that and the gentle afternoon sunlight gave the space a fresh, calming feeling. Beyond the pavilion was a shallow pool, and the light reflecting off the water as the wind moved it made for a charming undulating pattern of light and shade playing out on the arches.
As the two men stood outside, they could see the rest of the party discussing something to do with the wedding. But the thing that struck Adolphus as he watched was that this was a group of people totally at ease with one another. He could see, by their body language, by the little loving glances that they gave each other, by the way they touched each other more than was necessary, that Draco and Potter, in particular, were clearly very much in love.
Greengrass could see there were four women with the four students. Three of the women he knew by sight – Narcissa Malfoy, his hostess; Minerva McGonagall, who had taught him Transfiguration and could still scare the pants off him thirty years later; and, something of a surprise, Molly Weasley. What, he wondered, was the blood-traitor doing here? Was this another change he would just have to get used to? And then he remembered Lucius talking about Ronald, Molly's youngest son, getting married at the same time, and that made it sensible for her to be present. But it also must mean that the other woman, the one he knew he had never seen before, must be Ronald's fiancée. What was the name Lucius had said? Looking at the students, he knew them by sight as were Draco, Potter, Ron Weasley and that Mudblood Hermione Granger, and looking back at the fourth lady, he could see the family resemblance at once. And so, he realised, his surprise moving to shock, the fourth lady must be her mother.
There was a Muggle guest at Malfoy Manor. A Muggle who was laughing and joking with three pure-blood witches as if she belonged there. The whole world of pure-blood supremacy was crumbing before his eyes.
Lucius, standing beside him, felt him stiffen, and his eyes twinkled as he said,"You see, Adolphus? Times are changing. Shall we go in?"
Greengrass nodded, and made his first hesitant steps into the brave new Wizarding world that welcomed even Muggles in it.
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