Tea Time

Ya'll can thank the gods for miracles – my computer crashed. Fear not, I had Devil's Game all saved on a pin drive, including everything I've written thus far. So, here is a major "thank you" to my guardian goddess, Bastet, for protecting what's important to me. I bought myself a new laptop in the wake of the other one's death.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the song Drift Away.

Chapter 11: Tea Time

Remus did not ride home on the train with us. He was still in the hospital wing when we were boarding the train. Scorpius rode with the other Marauders. I didn't even see my own brother until we were all the way on the other end of the train trip. The compartment I sat in was comprised entirely of Slytherins – Ali, Illi, Lucius, Regulus Black, and Rabastan Lestrange. Although Rodolphus was in my year, he and the other third-year boys preferred to hang around with Bella and Cissa – sometimes it was like Illi and I didn't exist.

Not that I wasn't around with those two; I just preferred Lucius, Illi, and Ali. And when I wasn't with Lucius, he was with Rabastan – the same with Ali and Regulus.

The ride home was quiet for the most part, save for Rabastan's wireless belting along with the clickety-clack sound of the train wheels. The combination was soothing. Although I had slept well the night before, I sank against Lucius' warm, comfortable body and fell asleep.

Draco sighed, sinking into the compartment seat beside me. We were in the Prefect's carriage, though why I didn't know. I was only a third-year, after all. But the Malfoy boy wrapped his arm around me and sighed again.

"Go back to him, Hermione. If I'm not born, I understand. At least my father will have married for love... this time."

I jerked awake. Lucius smirked down at me. "Nice nap, love?"

"Yes..." I murmured. My body was still sluggish, but my mind grappled with the fading details of my dream furiously. "Lucius, I have a question for you."

"Hmm?"

"Do purebloods have the same thing as Muggle purebloods, where they... that is, where your father arranges your marriage?"

Lucius' hold on me tightened. "He hasn't mentioned... no. But it is... it is a usual occurrence. Why?" And I'd never seen so intense a gaze from his grey eyes as the one that was trained on me now.

"Nothing... I was reading on it and... never mind."

The wireless began a new song, and I sank back against Lucius again. His tight hold on my waist did not relax for well into the next few beats of the nondescript music. I didn't blame him. Though I had no experience with love, lust, marriage, or anything, I knew that marriage meant to be tied to a single person forever. What if I really had no choice for which person I would spend the rest of my life with? For the first time since I had met him, I pitied Lucius Malfoy.

Rabastan began to softly sing along with his radio, the words more somber in his gentle voice than the man who originally sang the song.

Day after day I'm more confused,

And Drift Away

I allowed myself to drift away on the confusing, freeing strains of the music. I almost didn't notice the way that Lucius rocked me gently to the beat, so caught in it that I had closed my eyes. Suddenly, I remembered myself back in the bed at St. Mungo's, my eyes magically closed, running through the confusing canyons of my memories. The bookshelf that stood alone amidst the fog.

Now, however, the canyons were filled, at least somewhat. By my friends. My family. My sisters, my brothers. My mother, Molly. I knew she wasn't really, but that was the only thing I could consider her.

Illi, Ali. Lucius, Scorpius, Remus.

Lucius suddenly leapt to his feet, pulling me up with him to the strains of a new sound on the wireless.

"Dance with me," he said, grinning as "Your Mama Don't Dance" came on the air. My eyes widened, and I shook my head. He just nodded more firmly, grasped my arms, and swung me in a graceful arc.

"Oh, Lucius, don't make her!" Rabastan cried, but he was grinning. "She can't know how."

"No time like the present to learn," Lucius said, pulling my right hand in his, tossing my left hand on his shoulder, and placing his on my waist. "Follow me, love."

Regulus jumped up beside the older boy and me, dragging Ali to her feet. Rabastan reached around him and pulled a far-less-than-resisting Illi into his own embrace. The six of us danced as only ones who didn't care about the world outside could dance.

Never before or since have I felt so exhilarated to be stuffed in a tiny compartment, rubbing bums with Rabastan Lestrange and thighs with Illiad Parkinson, laughing in the arms of Lucius Malfoy.

_-~*~-_

The chill air of December tasted like herbal tea and smelled of wild ice, even once we had stepped off the platform at King's Cross station. I will never forget that late December day, because it was the first time I'd ever met Abraxas Malfoy. I had changed into my Muggle clothes (ugh), pulling a deep green cloak on just to feel even generally "right" after so many months in robes.

How our perceptions change.

To show it off, I wore Lucius' ribbon. I was glad, far later down the line, for this previously unknown insight into the Malfoy perspective. Not Lucius'; Abraxas'.

Lucius politely helped me put my trunk on the ground, though it wasn't near as heavy, considering I'd left most of my clothes at Hogwarts. Rabastan and Regulus did the same for Illi and Ali. All three of us girls blushed and thanked our gentlemen. In spite of our young age, it was still a treat to know such sweet men.

Simultaneous cries wrenched the air with shrill harpy voices.

"ALIOTH!"

"REGULUS!"

And just as suddenly, Ali and Regulus were on the ground, covered with their mothers' kisses. Regulus was – quite futilely – trying to get up. Ali just shrieked back a word that sounded suspiciously like, "Mummy!"

All four seemed to rise at once. Ali tugged her mother, a woman who looked like an older copy of her daughter, over toward Lucius, Illi, and me.

"This is my mum, Juniper Mulciber," she said, regaining her Slytherin sensibilities. The elder woman smiled and held her hands out to Illi and me. Lucius kissed her right hand after she released ours.

"Good afternoon," she said politely, the shrieking from before causing her throat to husk the words slightly.

"Illiad Parkinson, Mrs. Mulciber," Illi said, smiling.

"Lucius Malfoy."

"Hecate Taylor."

Mrs. Mulciber blinked several times. "I'm terribly sorry to be rude, but... You are the same girl who...?"

"Was Obliviated?" I supplied, smiling. "Don't worry, you're not the first."

Regulus pulled his own mother over to us. She looked well-aged in spite of her sons' ages, her face lined and pallor yellowed. Her hair, though, was as black as both her sons', and straight as string.

"Walburga Black," she said primly, her eyes warming over me. "I heard good things from Sirius about you, Hecate Taylor. And more of the same from Regulus."

I ducked my head with a delighted blush. "I'm... pleased to hear that, Mrs. Black. I'm also quite glad that you sent Sirius to keep Scorpius and me company in St. Mungo's. We were going a bit stir-crazy before then."

Mrs. Black chuckled softly. "Please, you must meet my husband, Orion. Come to tea sometime during the holidays? Your brother is, of course, invited as well."

But the invitation for Scorpius sounded more like cold politeness and nothing more. I decided against bringing him, unless he really wanted to meet Walburga and Orion Black.

"We're having Cissa, Bella, Andy, and their parents over for tea tomorrow," Regulus said excitedly. "Could they come then, mother, please? Could Ali come, if... if that's okay with you, Mrs. Mulciber?"

"Of course, that would be lovely, Regulus," Mrs. Black said. She smiled down her long nose at me. "Shall I owl Ms. Taylor the particulars?"

"I'll let Molly know," I said, grinning. "Thank you. I'll see you two there, then."

Mrs. Mulciber, Mrs. Black, Ali, and Regulus said good-bye and walked away. Illi hugged me round the middle and left too. Sometime in the exchange with the two first-years' mothers, Rabastan had vanished. Lucius smiled at me.

"Shall we tell Molly of your invitation to the ball now, then, as well?" he asked.

"Sure, that's a good idea," I said. I picked up my trunk handle and wheeled off toward the entrance. Lucius wasn't far behind, and he stopped me with the minutest of movements.

"That's my father," he said, nodding toward the walkway.

Standing off from the crowd, alone and tall, his eyes trailing off with a bored air of indifference, was an exact replica of Lucius – twenty years his senior. His long, white-blond hair was bound in a black velvet ribbon, not a hair out of place. Even his nose was shaped the same. I smiled up at Lucius.

"You can tell you're related."

Lucius let loose a delicate snort. "I wish he weren't so cold sometimes. After mother..." He stopped, but I could hear the end of that sentence. Died. I had never asked why Lucius never spoke of her – so this was why. She wasn't alive. He guided me toward Abraxas Malfoy with the polite air of a pureblood scion. I knew that only because Lucius had trained me how to act when he did.

"Father," Lucius greeted him. "May I present Lady Hecate, sir?"

"Charmed," said Mr. Malfoy. He accepted my hand, bent to it, but did not kiss it the way Lucius did every time he did so. I felt only cold air on my wrist. "I assume my son has informed you of my invitation, madam?"

"Yes, sir," I said, polite indifference crossing my features. "I look forward to it."

Now he smiled. "That is good to hear, young lady. I see Lucius has given you one of our ribbons."

"Yes." I returned the smile politely. "It is quite useful. Thank you for letting him give it to me."

Mr. Malfoy's smile widened. "You are welcome. Lucius?"

"Father, may I go with Lady Hecate to inform her mother of the invitation?"

"Be quick, Lucius. We have a Manor to prepare for the ball."

"Yes, Father."

Lucius led me away with the same polite, aristocratic air he had brought me over with. As soon as we were out of earshot, he let loose a huge sigh. "Thank the gods that's over with. You did beautifully, Hecate. He was pleased."

I smiled nervously, feeling as though I had been disturbingly close to being hexed. Lucius just shook his head and returned seamlessly into the friend I'd come to know. Scorpius had already found Molly by the time we found her in a corner of the platform.

"Molly!" I grinned and raced forward to hug her tightly. She gripped my cloak in her arms.

"Oh, look at you, scrawny as the day is long!" Molly scowled. "I told you to eat, girl!" She hugged me good-naturedly, all the same.

"She has been, trust me," Lucius said from behind me. "She eats more than most women in our House."

Molly turned her glowing eyes on Lucius. A flicker of emotion passed in front of her eyes, but I didn't quite know what. Lucius, for his part, did not act as though he had seen it. If he had, I would know about it soon enough.

"I'm Lucius Malfoy, one of Hecate's friends from school," he said, offering his hand to shake. Molly shook it with a polite smile. "My father invited her to our Christmas ball on the twenty-sixth, and I was just wondering if that would be quite all right with you, Ms. Taylor?"

"Oh, please, call me Molly," she said. She glanced down at me – another odd emotion in her eyes, as though she were wary. "Of course she can go. What time is it? I'll need to buy you some nice dress robes, too, Hecate."

"No need to do so, Molly," Lucius said, smiling softly. "I... I'd like to take her somewhere to buy the robes. As a Christmas gift."

I turned surprised eyes on my friend. "R-Really, Lucius?"

He nodded, smiling shyly through his pale, long eyelashes, somehow managing to look up at me from his advantaged height. I threw my arms around his neck.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"It's the least I can do, love," he whispered back. "I'll pick you up at your Floo at three o'clock, then?" He glanced at Molly.

"Of course," Molly said, smiling. "We will see you then, L-Lucius." I noticed the trip over his first name and wondered at it. Oh, I most definitely would be discussing Molly's odd reactions with him.

After all, if our suspicions were correct, Molly had something to do with my apparent Obliviate.

"Oh!" I covered my mouth. "I've been invited to tea at the Blacks tomorrow, too! Mrs. Black said she'd owl you the details."

"Awfully popular, aren't you?" Molly said, but she was grinning.

"Regulus said Score could come if he wanted to..." I said, glancing at my brother. He looked horrified at the prospect.

"That's okay," Molly said. "Wanda said that Sirius' family doesn't like him much."

Lucius cleared his throat. "I'll see you on the twenty-sixth, love. Molly, Scorpius." He nodded a greeting to each of them and bowed to kiss my hand. "Hecate."

He turned and was gone in a flourish of green silk robes.

"Well, come along, then," Molly said. "We ought to get you two home so you can unpack. Wanda said that Remus would come over tomorrow afternoon. I'll see if I can catch Bernard's attention after we find out when you'll be going to tea, Hecate."

A shivering cold smacked me in the chest. It took me nearly as long as it took to get into the Muggle cab before I figured out what it was – guilt. I got to see Lucius, Illi, Ali, and Regulus all during the school year, and now I wasn't going to be home to possibly to hang out with Remus.

On the other hand, I'd never met any of the Blacks. This would be my first opportunity to meet Orion, Cygnus, and Druella Black. And I'd never really gotten to hang out with Andy at all, her being a seventh-year. Of course, that excuse was kind of out there. I hung around a fifth-year and a couple first-years all the time. In fact, now that I think of it, I hardly ever hung around with any of my fellow year mates aside from Illi.

Now isn't that a sobering thought.

I blew a deep breath out of my mouth, telling myself that it wasn't that difficult of a situation.

_-~*~-_

I dressed in a deep green set of robes, pulling my cloak closer around my neck. Regulus was going to Floo in to escort me to the Black household, but I still preferred wearing my cloak for appearance's sake. First impressions, after all, had Sticking Charms attached to them – they didn't just go away. That's what Molly kept telling me about Sirius, James, and Peter, anyway.

It really wasn't so much that I didn't want to give the other three Marauders a chance. More to the point, it was too dangerous to associate with them. Try explaining that to someone like Molly, who had never attended Hogwarts during a war.

Oh, how little I knew.

Remus and Scorpius were already over at Remus' flat with James, already lamenting that Sirius couldn't join them. Molly was at work already. I'd spent most of the morning doing my holiday essays – I only had my History of Magic one remaining. I couldn't start on it in only fifteen minutes, so I was pacing the space in front of the fireplace waiting for Regulus.

Just as Mrs. Black's missive had said the day before, Regulus spun out from the fireplace at exactly two o'clock. His long black hair had been tied back in an elegant, gentlemanly ponytail at his nape. He wore black dress robes that seemed to glisten as he walked – except where the ashes had stuck to them, of course.

"Heck!" he grinned up at me. "All ready to go?"

I nodded, smiling down at my favorite Black boy. "All ready."

He glanced around, obviously intrigued by the front room. "This is real nice, for a Muggle flat. What's that thing?" He pointed at the TV.

"It's a television," I said. "It shows programs with moving pictures. Sort of like extended wizarding photographs with sound."

"Really?" His slim black eyes widened. "How do they do that without magic?"

"It's electricity," I said, smirking. "Were we going, or are you going to stand and gawk at my sitting room for much longer?"

The twelve-year-old blushed. "It's number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Careful about the number, there's another wizarding family in number four."

I nodded, making a mental note to ask who later on. Regulus stepped back into the fireplace with a pinch of Floo powder. I followed him as soon as the green flames cleared. The fireplaces whirled around like a sick Muggle carnival ride and finally spat me out in what had to be the gloomiest sitting room I had ever laid eyes on.

Not that that said much.

Almost as soon as I'd stepped clear of the fireplace, a man that looked much like Sirius might at forty stepped forward and muttered several incantations. I recognized only half of them.

"Dad! Could you at least wait until she's out of the way before you start all that?" Regulus whined slightly.

"I will not have anyone finding our home, Reggie, as you well know," said the serious-looking man. He turned to me. "Orion Black, madam, and a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance. I doubt Reggie would have given us time of day unless you were somehow involved." His black eyes glittered with mirth at that.

"Nice to meet you, sir," I said, smiling politely.

Walburga Black was sitting at the long, wooden table in a silver-painted chair. She smiled in greeting at me, and then returned to her Daily Prophet.

I appeared to be in a basement kitchen. At the far end was a house-elf, who cheerfully hummed along to a wizarding wireless as he worked. The table was set with good silver goblets and plates. Regulus grinned.

"I have to go pick up Ali, so I'll be right back, okay?"

"All right," I said. I took a seat across from his mother as Regulus stepped back into the Floo. Walburga Black smiled up at me through her eyelashes.

"Sirius is gathering Cissa, Bella, Andy, Cygnus, and Druella," she said. Her husband settled into the head chair of the table, taking his wife's paper with him. "He should be back soon."

"I've not really had a chance to speak much with Sirius," I admitted. "My brother Scorpius is on much more friendly terms. I believe they, James, Remus, and Peter are rarely without one another."

"I have heard much the same of yourself, Illiad Parkinson, Alioth Mulciber, my son, and Lucius Malfoy. You surround yourself with odd company, I admit, Miss Taylor."

"Please call me Hecate, Madam Black," I said. "I rarely answer to Taylor even at school. And I honestly wouldn't know that it is strange, considering..." I allowed my tone to drift.

"Call me Walburga, then, Hecate," she said. "Too many Blacks will be here to know to whom you are speaking. And I sympathize as well as I can."

"Why would it be strange?" I asked.

"Usually people tend to enjoy being with those their own age," Walburga said, gesturing toward the fireplace. "Parkinson is the only one who fits in with your group, and even she is a touch odd, considering her American heritage."

"Native American," I pointed out. "And I don't find it odd. She acts as British as the rest of us. Cissa and Bella are great companions for some things... others not so much."

Walburga chuckled softly. "Make-up spells not your cup of tea, then?"

Vehemently, I shook my head. The fireplace flared back up again, this time with Sirius Black spinning from the flames. Cissa, Bella, Andromeda, and a man who looked like Orion, only taller, and a woman who looked like an older, extremely petite version of Cissa, followed him. Not even a minute later, Regulus and Ali appeared.

Quite suddenly, I felt like a unicorn foal in a Care of Magical Creatures class, and all those present were deflowered men. Ali, Cissa, Bella, and Regulus, at once or so it seemed, cleared their throats. Orion Black rushed to gather more chairs at the table with off-handed flicks of his wand. Sirius and Regulus dutifully pulled out the chairs and Cissa, Bella, and Ali took the seats. Regulus smirked at me as he took the seat between Ali and me.

Ali usually wore high-necked, long-sleeved shirts, but I was astonished to see that she was wearing a delicate silver scarf. I could see the outline of a bruise just underneath it. I put it to the back of my mind for now, at least.

"Uncle Cygnus, Aunt Druella, these are my friends from school, Ali and Heck," he said, gesturing with a nod of his head toward us. "Heck shares Cissa and Bella's dorms with Illiad Parkinson."

"Pleased to meet both of you at last," Cygnus said, giving an easy smile that he passed back and forth between all three of us. "I've heard good things. Is it true that you're both so adept with a wand?"

"Dad!" Cissa and Bella groused as one.

"Well, I'm curious!" he said, shrugging. "It's not every day that I see a pair of girls so quick to study beyond their years. You would do well to take from their books." He eyed his two youngest daughters with a fatherly pout. Apparently Andromeda was already a lost cause as a seventh-year, or she didn't give him the same worries.

"Ali is the one who's a quick study," I said quickly. "I just had all of my studies still in my head."

I'd said the wrong thing. All heads swiveled round to look at me, waiting for me to explain. I bit back a sigh. I hated this.

"It was the only thing I did remember," I murmured, feeling my face growing hot under their scrutiny. To my surprise, it was Sirius Black who changed the subject.

"So how are things progressing with finding Andy here a mate, then?"

Druella and Cygnus pounced on the subject. I was glad their gazes no longer rested on me, but I did feel guilty to have the pressure simply shifted to the seventh-year girl. Apparently this was a long-running debate. Andromeda had declined to marry four eligible bachelors so far, and time was cutting short to find her a "man of suitable reputation," as Walburga put it.

I was shocked to find in the course of the discussion that Walburga was actually Orion's second cousin. One of the four "eligible bachelors" who had been suggested to Andromeda was Sirius himself. Both had scoffed at the notion alone.

Would I be asked for someone's hand in marriage in such a fashion? I was a Slytherin; that seemed to be the Slytherin way. I had embraced much of the social norms that permeated my mostly pureblooded House, but this... Then I recalled the conversation I'd had with Lucius and Rabastan. If half our fathers knew how smart you are... you would be getting marriage proposals before you ever left Hogwarts...

I shoved the entire thought out of my head before I could worry. I was fourteen years old. There was no way I'd be asked to marry so soon. The niggling reminders of the conversation before me made the thoughts creep back in on their own.

I wouldn't always be fourteen. Then again, I doubted I would mind much if it was Lucius or even Rabastan... I shuddered at the thought of James Potter, the only out-of-Slytherin pureblood I knew. Sure, he was handsome and a friend of my brother's, but far too arrogant. Come to think, Lucius was fairly arrogant, too.

But he wasn't a Gryffindor.

He understood me.

I shivered at the mere notion of Crabbe touching me at all. I felt as though his stupidity could rub off on me just by hexing him.

But what about Remus? Warmth ran through me at the thought, and then it quelled in my chest as suddenly as it came. Remus was half-blood. His mother would want him marrying for love. I didn't know quite if I'd say I loved Remus, but I wouldn't mind him kissing me.

"Hecate, your tea is going to get cold," Ali whispered softly in my ear. I blinked down at her, and then down at the full cup in front of me.

"Thank you, Ali," I whispered back. I sipped at the lukewarm liquid, chastising myself for drifting again. Lucius had warned me against doing that, especially amongst purebloods.

By the end of the tea, I was glad I came. Regulus was much more open amongst his family. Orion and Cygnus were quick to embarrass their sons and daughters with an array of anecdotes. I will never forget that Cissy had once driven her sister to baldness because she'd convinced Bella that black hair made her a boy. Or the exploding Muggle toys Sirius had slipped into Regulus' bath. I didn't know what rubber duckies were until Sirius explained through gasps that they were tiny yellow plastic things that Muggle children bathed with.

Above all else, though, I Flooed away with a greater understanding of how a family should act. In particular, how siblings act. And it was with great relish that I realized that I had always acted that way around Scorpius. Instinctively, somehow, I'd known how to be a sister.

The tea had been something of a success. Best of all, Remus was still there when I got home.