12:With Lucius

The Great Hall went completely silent when Draco and Hermione walked through the doorway. Every head turned to look, and then they just sat there, watching. It was as if a stalemate had been declared...Hermione and Draco standing frozen in the doorway and all of the students staring back at them, some occasionally remembering to blink.

Finally, the Headmaster cleared his throat loudly, and the hall came back to life.

Draco stepped forward, moving decisively to the Gryffindor table, where the sixth-years were all sitting together. He could still feel eyes on him as he led Hermione to her friends.

"Potter. Weasley. Finnegan," he greeted with polite disinterest, as he helped Hermione take a seat on the bench.

"M-Malfoy." Potter was the only one quick enough on the take to realise what was happening. By that point, Draco was already kissing Hermione's palm. He turned away without another word to the Gryffindors, walking to the Slytherin table with as much arrogant purpose as he could manage in the hundred feet from where he left Hermione to where he took his own seat.

He had to send four third-year Slytherin boys scattering from the table, but soon he was holding Hermione's gaze as she chatted with her friends. Occasionally, she would blush and drop her chin, side-stepping questions or comments that her friends sent her way. He laughed out loud when Lavender Brown all but shoved Finnigan out of the way, instantly barraging Hermione with muted questions. Hermione just rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Well, they aren't joined at the hip any more, Crabbe, do you think we've got our mate back?" Zabini asked in a hushed voice as they moved to sit across from Draco, careful not obstruct his view of Hermione.

Hearing the word 'mate' made Draco sit up, his back arching slightly as he sucked a deep breath through his nose. Oh! He could smell her from here! He could smell her on him, and he loved it. However, the hall smelt of porridge and tea and Hermione.

"Oi! Malfoy!" Crabbe snapped his fingers, reaching over the table just slightly.

Coming out of the fog, Draco smirked at his friends and tucked into breakfast as his friends filled him in on the latest news around the school.

They spent the rest of the day together, Hermione joining him at the Slytherin table for lunch where she ate quietly except for the one zinger she sent in Crabbe's direction. She did it with such nonchalance that, while Draco and Blaise got it right away, no one else did. When they finally figured it out, they chuckled softly. She sat with such pleased satisfaction on her features that all of the blokes warmed to her immediately and all the witches' stares turned icy cold.

Classes were a breeze. They shared tables now, and their collective attentions were directed on their work.

Draco was called to meet with the Headmaster after his classes to confirm that he would go back to normal Slytherin scheduling next year, and that he no longer needed additional accommodations from the school besides a place to stay with Hermione. The headmaster even shook his hand, again congratulating him on the fine accomplishments he'd achieved over the year. Draco wasn't certain what those achievements were exactly, but he thanked the headmaster and went on his way.

Everything seemed so right with the world as he walked back from the meeting that he found himself whistling, the echoes merrily bouncing off the dungeon walls. That was until he smelled his father's pheromones drifting up the hallway to meet him. He quickened his pace to his suite.

Opening the door, he found his father dressing down Hermione. She held their half-grown kitten in her arms, and her head was bowed so he couldn't see her expression. His father's expression was familiar...he was lecturing her, condescension and ridicule turning his features towards cruel beauty.

"What is the meaning of this?" Draco demanded, barely keeping his voice from snarling. His pheromones were responding to his father's now, trying to reclaim the room. He also felt his skin tighten on his muscles as he approached the centre of the room. It was useless territorialism.

"Draco, good. I was awaiting your arrival when, to my surprise, Miss Granger walked through the door with Zabini."

The way he sneered the final words told Draco all that he needed to know. "I had a meeting with the Headmaster directly after Arithmancy. Blaise and Hermione left without me. I knew all about it." His father was acting like a jealous fool, and Draco didn't want to hear it.

"You haven't even had her for twenty-four hours. What kind of a... man lets his witch walk with other men unchaperoned. He will steal her from you."

Draco could see his father's flesh tightening in that way that meant he was barely reigning in his own internal beast. He was the patriarch of the family, and Draco was nothing but a young buck, so to speak. These were choppy waters to navigate.

Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw Hermione swoon and dashed to catch her. The kitten fell gracefully to the ground, and Draco picked up Hermione and took her to the couch, where he laid her against the armrest, her knees over his lap.

"Don't be bloody daft, Father! Blaise is the one person who has been pushing me towards her since I confirmed her identity as the one."

Lucius didn't respond to Draco's claim, only turned and began pacing away a few steps. "What about her mark? Why has it been healed? Why is she even out of bed, Draco? She'll never get pregnant this way!" He moved to loom over them, as Draco comforted Hermione and smoothed some loose curls away from her face.

"We aren't trying for heirs at this point, Father. We haven't had a chance to discuss the future yet," Draco said as he ground his teeth together, anything he could do to keep his temper in check.

His father didn't hear a word he was saying, apparently, as he continued to rant. "Have you any idea how long your mother and I tried for you? Since she was fourteen! It took years to conceive!"

This was nothing that Draco felt he could respond to. It had been a hit on his father's pride...mostly because of his Veela nature...that he hadn't brought forth an heir earlier, and that there had been only him.

"Pack your things; I'm taking you both home," Lucius announced as he sank into a chair, making it look like a throne.

"Rhenium...We'll do no such thing," Hermione spoke with a strong but quiet tone. Opening one eye, she glared at her would-be father-in-law.

"Control her," Lucius instructed.

"Not for all the gold in Gringotts." Draco smirked.

Hermione sat forward, rolling her neck, before turning to Lucius and saying, "Bismuth...I'll have no babies until my parents...." She closed her eyes, breathing deep breaths, before she continued, "Seaborgium...until my parents approve!"

"What is she babbling about, Draco?"

However, Draco's attention was focused on Hermione's rump, as she was now standing right in front of him, facing down his father.

"Ununoctium...Muggle chemistry, Mister Malfoy. It's how...Samarium...I beat the pheromones." Hermione pulled her shoulders back triumphantly.

Lucius frowned up at her, a puzzled look on his face. Slowly he stood, sliding his fingers from both hands up under her jaw, carefully looking over Hermione's face. "What else is off about you?"

The gentle caress of his voice and the earnest expression of his face had Hermione's mouth opening to answer. However, Draco stood and wrapped arms around her waist, pulling her against him and out of his father's hand.

"She's perfection, everything that I want, and nothing else." He paused as a subtle clacking, a threatening rhythm tumbling from high in his chest. "We are staying for the rest of the term. When we go to King's Cross, we will hide her marks from her parents and meet them at the train station, and you'll behave. You'll do better than behave, actually, you'll make friends with those Muggles, at least so they like me enough to... approve. I won't separate her from her birthright any more than she let me separate from mine." Draco looked meaningfully at his father.

Lucius ignored what his son was saying and looked at them suspiciously. "She should be finding you irresistible, Draco. I demand evidence that you've done this properly. I am not leaving without it. Stop this nonsense and prove to me that you've claimed her."

Draco felt Hermione back into his body. She was nodding softly, giving him consent to show this vulnerable, intimate side of her to his father. Draco grit his teeth before pressing his lips to her mark and ending the charms on her as quietly as possible so his father couldn't hear him. Immediately, Hermione arched against his body, sighing in delight before turning to press her body against his. For Hermione, Lucius was totally forgotten. When her arms wrapped around his neck so she could pull herself up for a kiss, Draco's hands moved to her hips, holding her down so she stood on the ground.

When he looked at his father, Draco saw his eyes full of more pride than he'd ever seen from him. His heart swelled, and he forgot for the moment all of the qualms he had.

Lucius tilted his head to the bedroom door, and Draco took the hint to get rid of Hermione. She pouted as she pulled away from him but managed to make it through the bedroom door, shutting it softly behind her. Draco was dying to follow, but his father wanted a word in private. However, he did watch as she walked out of the room, her skirt flouncing with every step.

Once the door was closed, Lucius picked up his travelling cloak, and walked to the door. He turned to Draco, and said, "She is remarkable. You have given our family a bright future with her."

Draco nodded, silently accepting the praise.

"She must not, however, be so impertinent for the ritual. Be ready at the solstice, Draco."

"Father, must we?"

"Why do you resist so?" Lucius asked with great impatience.

Draco sighed.

"You must present her. She must be welcomed, and the knots tied."

"Fine. You can make the ritual arrangements, but we'll decide the public ones. Be ready for a long courtship, Father." Lucius opened his mouth to protest, but Draco opened the door, and said, "If you'll excuse me, there is a beautiful girl waiting for me in the bedroom."

Lucius closed his mouth and smiled, quickly advancing through the door. Once the door was shut, Draco warded it, not wanting any interruptions as he hurried to his room, loosening his tie and trying to forget what his father had told him. He would have to figure out a way to protect Hermione without tipping his father off. What that way was, he had no idea.