The In-Laws

To say that Bria was amazed at the sight of Harry Potter when she opened the great doors of the Manor would be a vast understatement. In fact, the little elf was so impressed that she promptly fainted.

"Malfoy? Anyone?" Harry looked down at the little elf worriedly. He pulled off his hoodie and began to fold it, leaning over the elf.

"Trying to free more of my elves, Potter?" Lucius sneered from the doorway of his study, which was many feet from the door.

Harry's gaze turned to ice. Refusing to be baited, he folded the jumper into a little pillow and lifted the little elf so that she was resting comfortably.

Draco came barrelling down the stairway opposite his father. "She's back?" he inquired as he pulled a cloak around him. He had been explaining the situation to his parents when Hermione's owl had come, telling him to be ready for Harry to bring him to her parents' house. His stomach had been so tied up that he had had to skip lunch, and he had posted Bria at the door to make sure Harry was let in promptly.

"Draco," Lucius chastised his son's urgency and lack of decorum as he stood next to Harry, obviously aching to leave.

"Yes, Father, I know. Only cretins run. This once, just this once, I have to say, bugger propriety! Potter?" Draco asked as he pushed the black-haired wizard out the door. Once they were at the Apparition point, Draco grabbed Harry's arm and urged him to go. Harry smirked, disbelieving that the Slytherin Prince was such a mess. Finally taking pity on him, Harry turned on his heel and took him to Hermione.

"Draco Malfoy, Hermione's parents live at one-four-one Pauling Way, Sutton, Surrey." Harry turned to watch Draco as the large home came into view for the first time.

It was a typical house for the area, three well-kept storeys of brick in the Tudor style. The neighbours' houses complemented it, and there was a large garden in the front. It was well maintained and gave off a sense of pride without being audacious. Draco swallowed; he hadn't been this nervous in many, many years.

Draco was startled by the sound of a bell. Harry had pressed it as Draco gaped at the house. Harry smirked. He remembered when Ron had come with him the first time, and it had taken quite a while to explain the bell to him.

"Harry James Potter, give us a hug!" Elise beamed at the young man. She held him for a long time, patting and rubbing his back and kissing his cheeks. When she seemed to have gotten her fill, she pulled back and brushed his hair back, exposing a now unmarred forehead. She pulled it to her for a close look and ultimately kissed his forehead several times. "Oh, Harry! I'm so happy for you! I'm so, so happy!" She pulled him in again, never noticing that Harry was beginning to get truly embarrassed.

"Oh, and look how tall you are! Shot up late, did you?"

"Elise! Let the boy go!" Nathaniel yelled from inside the house.

"Nathaniel Brian Granger! I haven't seen him in three years; leave me be!" Elise pulled him down for another motherly hug, as if to ensure that Harry really was in front of her and intact.

Hermione came into the doorway to pry Harry out of her mother's arms. "Mum!" Hermione was starting to feel embarrassed as well. Draco was watching the whole display with avid curiosity. As Elise finally relinquished her hold on the Boy Who Lived Twice, he quickly moved to shake Nathaniel's hand, which was followed by a manly hug with a solitary clap on the back.

Seeing that Harry was settled on the couch, Elise turned back to Draco, giving him a look of deep disapproval as she pursed her lips. "Mr Malfoy, I presume?"

Well, it could have been worse. Draco was able to keep from flinching, but only just. After seeing such an... exuberant display of welcome, minimal courtesy seemed to be rather insulting.

"Yes, madam. It is an honour to meet you." Draco tried to stealthily wipe his sweaty palm on his Transfigured jacket before delicately shaking her hand.

"Do come in." Elise moved aside and Draco walked into the sitting room. Nathaniel stood and moved to shake his hand. Once introductions were made, everyone sat down. Elise and Harry were on a longer couch, Hermione, Acara, and Nathaniel sat on a love seat, and Draco reluctantly moved to one of the two armchairs remaining. He definitely felt like the odd man out.

Elise served tea, and Draco was shocked to find her manners were nearly as prim as his mother's. After a few excruciating minutes when only the clink of saucers could be heard, Nathaniel cleared his throat.

"Well, Mr M...Draco. Are you pleased with yourself?" The older man's tone clearly suggested that he was not.

Draco's heart skipped a beat. He took a long swallow of tea, choosing his response carefully. "I am extremely pleased with the outcome, sir. I do, however, have the perspective now that illuminates what some would consider to be objectionable behaviour."

"That's a very intricate response, Draco. On the whole, I take it to mean 'yes'," Nathaniel stated, staring at the blond with unflinching neutrality. "Is 'yes' what you mean?"

Draco blinked slowly. "Yes."

"To all of it, everything you ever did to Hermione, you are pleased with?" Nathaniel insisted.

"At the end of the day, sir, I am."

"How interesting." Nathaniel leaned back and turned away from the boy he was interrogating. His face turned thoughtful, and he began to worry his lower lip in deep concentration. Frustration was quickly beginning to show on his face.

"Would you not agree, sir, that Hermione is the cleverest, most innovative, most beautiful witch... girl that there could possibly be?" Draco asked seriously, his eyes never leaving Hermione's father. Though, in the periphery he could see Hermione blushing as she drank daintily from the fine china. "I've known for nearly half my life that she was all of that and more."

"Then I am to understand that you find it necessary to treat our daughter like rubbish out of admiration?"

Draco took another long drink from his cup, nearly emptying it. "Regrettably, it is not as simple as that."

"Yes, Nathaniel. Additionally, persons closer to the situation seem to be amenable. You said that that... Arulio, is it?" Elise turned to Hermione for confirmation.

"Ariulo," Hermione corrected.

"Yes, that's right. Ar-i-u-lo has said he is impressed by Draco's work in the colony."

Draco couldn't help but be grateful that someone was playing what most clearly thought to be the devil's advocate. However, he also couldn't shake a sense of irony from Hermione's mother.

Nathaniel seemed unmoved. Having decided he needed more information, he turned toward the other young man present. "Harry? What are your thoughts?"

Harry choked on the biscuit he'd just put in his mouth. He quickly drank some tea and pounded on his chest.

"Well, he's not a total git, like he used to be," Harry said uncertainly, unsure of whose side he was on.

"Dad, Mum, it doesn't matter; we're getting married, I signed the contract."

"It's not as simple as that, Sweeting, I'm sorry." Nathaniel delicately set his cup and saucer down and abruptly walked out of the room. Hermione felt cold without the warmth of her father beside her on the small couch. There was an awkward silence for a few moments, until the sound of Nathaniel's footsteps became louder.

When he came back, he was holding a leather-bound letterbox. Nathaniel pointed it accusingly at Draco, who had no choice but to take it with his free hand. He cast an Immobilize Charm as well as a Hover charm on his teacup and saucer and carefully opened the box on his lap.

"Dad?" Hermione looked between the box and her father with her brow furrowed.

"It's letters from you when you were at Hogwarts," Draco explained quietly.

"Not all of the letters, Sweeting, just the tear-soaked ones. The happy ones are in a different box. Mr Malfoy seems to be at the centre of most of these." Nathaniel moved his hand over Hermione's back a few times before he ended up holding her firmly where her neck met her shoulder. The butt of his palm rested on the brand, and Draco could feel it pressing on his chest.

He could also feel a definite constriction of the muscles in his chest, but he refused to let the others know.

"Blimey, Hermione. There's got to be, like, a hundred letters there," Harry said from his seat, amazed again at his prolific friend.

Hermione was in awe. She couldn't believe that her parents had saved all of those letters. She'd saved theirs as well, but she figured it was because she was a young girl away from home in a very, very strange land. She also knew that Draco was not as unmoved as he was hoping to portray, but the only other person in the room who seemed to notice, or care, maybe, was her mum.

"I was extremely unpleasant as a child," Draco admitted stoically. He delicately replaced the envelopes he'd lifted to their original places before shutting the box. He heard Harry scoff quietly, but didn't think much of it. Draco took a deep breath and continued, "I can only assure you, as I have assured Hermione, that this..." He gestured to the box in his lap. "...is not what the future holds."

Silence hung heavily in the room. For a few moments, no one moved. Finally, Acara got up and moved to lie beside Draco's chair, her head resting heavily against his ankle.

More long, quiet minutes passed until Nathaniel made his excuse to leave. "Harry, show me what's been done on the house outside, if you don't mind?" he asked before giving Hermione a kiss on the cheek and leaving the sitting room unceremoniously. Harry scampered after him after pilfering a few biscuits to nibble as the two men talked.

"Hermione, if you'd help me in the kitchen a moment?" Elise requested, seemingly desperate to break the tension.

Hermione immediately got up, and she and her mother worked to clear the tea things away.

When Draco was alone, he dropped his head into his hands, shaking it softly. How two people could hold him captive, without magic, using only the weight of their judgment to pin him down, he did not know.

As he was trying to bolster himself, Draco felt a delicate hand push through his hair. He looked up, surprised to find Elise standing beside him. He hadn't really noticed it before, but she looked nothing like Hermione. She did not have a heart-shaped face or cupid's bow lips. The shape of their eyes was the same, but Hermione definitely took after her father.

"Can I trust that you've changed?" Elise asked quietly, the sound of Hermione doing the dishes wafting into the room. She pushed her fingers through his hair again, a distinctly maternal essence working to smooth his rough nerves.

"I am certain I have, and will continue to change, although she will always be the centre of my world. That will never change." Draco closed his eyes slowly, feeling simultaneously sedate and alert in extremes.

Elise's small hand slid down his cheek. "Be sure I do not regret this." She patted his cheek softly a couple of times. "She could use some help in the kitchen with the drying."

Draco nodded, walking fluidly into the kitchen to help Hermione finish cleaning up.