Hermione stared up at the gates of Malfoy Manor nervously, clutching her bag tightly to her side. She wasn't excited about meeting Lucius and Narcissa on her own; she had tried to delay the meeting when Draco said he needed to work late, but Lucius insisted that they couldn't wait any longer to plan the decisions that she and Draco were in charge of. Draco reassured her that he would arrive immediately after he finished with work, but it did little to calm her nerves.
With a heavy sigh she pushed through the gates and made her way up the cobblestone path, keeping her eyes down as she approached the building. Her past visits were easier with Draco by her side...
The door was opened by the time she made it to the steps and Lucius was standing in the doorway, smiling at her.
"Hermione!" He greeted happily, pulling her in for a hug. "It's wonderful to see you! I can't tell you how grateful we are for your help in this!"
She returned the hug but gave a nervous smile in return. "I'm certainly curious to see how a Malfoy gala is run!"
Lucius chuckled as he ushered her inside and shut the door behind her. "Come now, dear; no need to hide behind a smile. I can tell you're nervous."
"Is it that obvious?" She asked, looking around quickly.
"Narcissa's upstairs in one of the drawing rooms," He said quietly, clasping his hands behind his back. "And she's nervous as well."
"She is?" Hermione blinked. "Why?"
Lucius smiled slightly. "Well, she's been hoping to use this event to help mend things between you and her. She feels terrible for how she's treated you in the past and wants to use this as a chance to make things right."
Hermione stared at him in shock, and his smile simply widened in response. He then gestured towards the stairs and asked, "Shall we?"
She could only manage a nod as she reluctantly followed him up the stairs, glancing around nervously still. He led her down a hallway towards a large, open sitting room. There were many windows with the curtains drawn, allowing light to flood into the room and give a soft glow. A group of four arm chairs were set up around a table off to the side in front of a fireplace while a set of couches and a chaise lounge were on the other side of the room. Bookcases lined the walls, and while Hermione was drawn to them, she knew that now was not the time as she laid eyes on Narcissa.
Narcissa was seated in one of the armchairs, elegantly poised as she leaned slightly forward to read the papers that were on the coffee table in front of her. Her back was straight and her legs were neatly crossed at the ankle, but what surprised Hermione most about the older witch was her hair. In the past her blonde hair was always pulled up into a tight bun, out of the way. But now her hair was down and straight, and only a small portion of the top front bangs were pulled up into a pompadour. She seemed more relaxed as well, even smiling slightly to herself as she went through the papers.
But when she noticed that Hermione and Lucius had entered the room, her demeanor changed as she looked up and the slight smile was replaced with a subtly nervous look as she straightened up in her seat.
"Good evening," She greeted politely with a nod.
Hermione returned the nod. "Good evening, Mrs. Malfoy."
Narcissa nervously clasped her hands in front of her, glancing towards her husband before looking back towards Hermione. "Is Draco not with you?"
"He's working a bit late, dear," Lucius said as he gestured towards the seats. "We can begin planning while we wait for him; he's already said that he will come as soon as he's off work."
Hermione followed Lucius to the group of chairs, taking the chair that was across from Narcissa as Lucius took the chair between Hermione and his wife. While he may have not been oblivious to the tension in the room, he was certainly ignoring it.
"So!" He started, looking between the two of them. "Shall we get started on the guest list?"
With a nod, Narcissa returned to her stack of papers, quietly rifling through them as Hermione set her bag down and pulled out her own list. "I have a few of my own that I wanted to add to your list..."
She heard Lucius chuckle and looked up as he said gently, "Hermione, dear, we will be adding to your list."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, casting a confused glance to Narcissa.
"Did Draco not tell you? I swear, that boy..." Narcissa huffed slightly, shaking her head before continuing with a soft smile. "We are leaving the larger decisions up to you, including the guest list."
Hermione's eyes widened slightly as she stuttered. "He, uh, he didn't mention that one of the decisions was the guest list."
Narcissa's smile widened as she let out a small laugh. "It's nothing to be afraid of; we've greatly narrowed down the list of people that we would rather see. Most of those who used to come to our galas are no longer with us in some way or another, and I think it's better that way."
While this was said in a lighter tone, Hermione wasn't sure how to respond. She instead took the list of names that Narcissa had offered, scanning the last names quickly for any. Surprisingly, there were very few names listed; there were maybe only between ten or fifteen, and none of which were any she was familiar with.
"Are you sure you only want to invite this many?" Hermione asked, looking up between the two of them. "I would've thought there'd be more."
"Well our social circle has somewhat diminished in recent years," Lucius said with a sigh, straightening up in his chair before smiling to Narcissa. "However I believe this is for the better."
"I agree, sweetheart," Narcissa responded, reaching out to squeeze Lucius's hand.
Hermione blinked, trying to not make it too obvious how caught off guard she was by Narcissa's gesture. In the past Narcissa really only showed affection to Draco, especially in recent interactions. Hermione found herself smiling though, even relaxing a bit more as she looked over the list again.
Draco rushed as quickly as he could to finish his work, checking his watch every so often. The meeting to discuss the gala had started nearly forty-five minutes ago, and while he knew his father was going to be wonderful to Hermione, it was his mother that he was worried about.
After finishing the last page of work he quickly stood up and grabbed his things, locking up his office as quickly as he could and disapparating away.
He landed just outside of the gates and forced himself to stop, taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself down. Lately his werewolf side had become much more protective of Hermione, something he knew was going to happen as their relationship progressed. He had come to realize lately just how much he loved her, and this was having an adverse effect on how much his other wide would leak into his regular personality. Blaise and Ginny had become used to his minor snaps, but he couldn't imagine the wrath he'd be on the receiving end of if he accidentally snapped at his parents.
After one last deep breath he pushed through the gates and made his way up the walkway, staring up at the old house. The fact that there were no spell lights flashing through the windows made him feel somewhat better, but he still swallowed the lump in his throat before walking into the Manor.
The sound of laughter from somewhere upstairs made him pause in the foyer, staring up the large staircase before slowly walking towards it. The laughter was certainly a good sign, but at this point he had no idea what to expect.
He certainly was not expecting to see his parents and Hermione laughing together as Narcissa refilled Hermione's glass of wine.
"...He was so distraught after that, I didn't know what to think," Narcissa said through laughs as she set the bottle down and leaned back into her chair, swirling the wine around in her glass.
"I wasn't distraught," Lucius said defensively with a shake of his head. "I simply thought you were overreacting."
Hermione giggled at this before asking, "So what happened to them?"
"They were all rehomed," Narcissa sighed. "It's rather nice not having to deal with them though."
"What are we talking about?" Draco asked as he stepped into the room, smiling at the group.
Hermione grinned up at him. "The fate of the white Malfoy peacocks."
Draco groaned at this, setting a hand on the back of Hermione's chair as he set his bag down. "You make one joke about having roasted peacock for dinner and then you are no longer allowed to have peacocks!"
"I was just being careful!" Narcissa said insistently, though there was definitely a hidden smugness behind her smile. "Those things shat all around my gardens anyway."
She took a long drink while Hermione fought back a laugh, smiling at Draco as he sat down in the chair between Hermione and his mother.
"Such foul language, Mother," Draco said, shaking his head.
"Oh please, I've heard you mutter worse under your breath," Narcissa said with a wave of her hand.
Lucius chuckled at this and reached over to take his wife's hand, smiling at her. Draco gave them a surprised look and then looked at Hermione, who simply smiled in return and took a drink of her wine.
"So," Draco started, looking at the papers scattered about on the table. "How is the planning going? Did I miss too much of it?"
"Oh, everything has been decided!" Narcissa said happily before gesturing towards Hermione. "She came prepared with many different plans and ideas; we hardly had to discuss anything!"
Draco grinned as Hermione beamed happily, waving Narcissa off as she said, "I wanted to make sure that I had a plan for something in case we couldn't come up with any plans ourselves."
"That sounds like you," Draco teased, leaning over to give Hermione a kiss.
"Hush, you," Hermione said, scrunching her nose up at him as he laughed.
"Really, all that we needed to sort out was the guest list," Lucius shrugged. "And that was simply a misunderstanding that was easily sorted."
Narcissa then reached over to smack Draco's arm. "How could you not tell her that you two were in charge of the guest list? The poor girl was so confused!"
"I thought I told her!" Draco exclaimed, rubbing his arm. "Sorry!"
"Like Lucius said, it was easily sorted out," Hermione laughed. "They've already given me their list of guests they would like invited, and we can invite anyone else that we would like!"
"Really?" Draco asked, giving his parents a surprised look. "Anyone else?"
Narcissa nodded as Lucius said, "Anyone else that you would like."
Draco looked over to Hermione who smiled. "We've got everything else figured out too so there's nothing else to do except send out invitations!"
He smiled in return and then reached over to give her forehead a kiss. "And you were worried about being a good host!"
Hermione laughed at this, and Lucius and Narcissa smiled at the two of them.
A/N: Thank you all so much for your patience with this chapter! I'm so happy to be writing friendly Narcissa again, and I can't wait for the next chapter; I promise it will be up faster than this one! Hope you all enjoy, love you all! <3