[Special] What Is the Malfoy Family's Magic? - Part 1/2
"Maybe going into a more aggressive mode with Daphne wasn't such a good idea," Hermione muttered as she walked through the corridors with obvious annoyance. She rubbed her wrist, where clear bite marks could still be seen, while trying to find her friend, who was now hiding from her.
It seemed that, just like Harry had said, cornering Daphne too much had backfired, and she'd earned herself a bite from her.
As she continued through the castle corridors, someone suddenly stepped out of the History of Magic classroom.
"Ah, hello, Professor Malfo... Black," Hermione greeted quickly, almost getting Narcissa's surname wrong for a moment, but remembering to call her Professor like she was supposed to.
"Are you still doing that?" Narcissa asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Hermione. "Lately, hearing your mother complain because you call her Professor Granger has become rather common," she added calmly.
"Well... at Hogwarts, you're supposed to address professors by their proper titles," Hermione said quickly, feeling somewhat nervous under Narcissa's scrutiny.
She had never really known how to act around Draco's mother. After all, unlike Edward's expressionless face, Narcissa's expressions seemed to be completely under her control, as if no one deserved to see any sign of her emotions.
Especially that way she had of watching her in complete silence. It only managed to make Hermione even more nervous.
Narcissa's eyes dropped toward the bite mark on Hermione's arm, and one of her eyebrows rose slightly, as if she had understood exactly what had happened without even needing to ask.
"You know, Hermione, I've watched all of you grow from little children into young people that we, as mothers, are truly proud of."
"You're all very intelligent, you can do anything you set your minds to, although yes, you're a little chaotic from time to time. And every one of you has a few small problems with your personalities. You all tend to obsess over something in one way or another."
Narcissa looked back at Hermione. "In your case, they're usually little things that, if you learned to let them go once in a while, would probably make your life much more peaceful," Narcissa finished, taking Hermione by surprise. She couldn't remember ever hearing her speak this much to her all at once.
"I... well..." was all Hermione managed to answer.
"You obsess so much over those little things that maybe you fail to see what actually matters. Or maybe you do it on purpose so you don't have to see it," Narcissa said, a small smile forming on her lips. "Your friend's romance instead of your own could be one of those things."
"What?" Hermione's eyes widened. "I don't have any romance...!" she quickly replied as her face started turning as red as a tomato.
"I didn't say you did. I only said you aren't paying any attention to having one. After all, you're already old enough to start thinking about boys," Narcissa replied, raising an eyebrow. For a moment, that smile reminded Hermione far too much of the expression Draco usually wore when he was making fun of someone.
"Ahem." Hermione cleared her throat, trying to maintain her composure. "I just feel like Daphne is wasting her time ignoring feelings she already knows she has for Viktor."
"Is that so? And why should that concern you?" Narcissa asked in a calm tone.
"I... well..."
"I'll tell you something interesting. Selene's personality when we were still students was very similar to her eldest daughter's now. Every time she saw Edward, her Ice Queen facade would completely fall apart and she'd run away like a frightened rabbit. And even then, it didn't take Edward very long to win her over," Narcissa added, letting out a small smile as she remembered the past.
"I'm pretty sure everything will work out just fine without your help. Besides, I think you should be paying more attention to your own situation," she continued, turning her attention back to Hermione.
Hermione looked rather confused by that last part.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Draco never told you what the Malfoy family's special magic is, did he?" Narcissa asked as another small smile appeared on her lips. Hermione was starting to think this had to be the day she'd seen the most emotions from her.
"The Malfoy family's magic? No. Although he seemed pretty against his family's magic," Hermione said with a frown.
"Against it would be saying too much. He's more embarrassed by it," Narcissa said.
But before she could continue and finally reveal what that magic was, which Hermione was now very interested in hearing about...
Someone interrupted their conversation.
"Mother," Draco said as he approached from around the corner of the corridor.
Hermione and Narcissa turned toward him. Draco seemed somewhat surprised to find them together. It wasn't strange, but it wasn't something that happened very often either.
"Is something wrong?" he asked when he noticed that both of them were staring at him.
"Oh, I was just about to tell Hermione what kind of magic our ancestor Nicolas Malfoy was so proud of," Narcissa said with a slightly amused smile that made Draco's eyes widen immediately.
"What?" Draco blurted out, alarmed. "Did you tell her?" He immediately turned toward Hermione. "She didn't tell you, right?"
Hermione couldn't help being surprised by his reaction. Suddenly, that mysterious magic had become much more interesting.
"No," Hermione finally said.
Draco visibly relaxed when he heard her answer.
"Good, that's good. We'd better hurry, we have class with Hagrid," he said immediately, making it quite obvious that he wanted to get Hermione out of there as quickly as possible.
Hermione stared at him for a few seconds before looking back toward Narcissa, who was still standing there with a completely calm expression.
But Draco didn't let her continue and simply took Hermione gently by the hand and pulled her along, something that startled her and embarrassed her at the same time.
"Come on, Harry and Daphne are waiting for us," Draco said, seemingly not noticing Hermione's embarrassment. Before leaving, he briefly looked back toward his mother. Narcissa raised a hand in farewell, an amused smile on her lips. To Draco, that smile looked absolutely diabolical.
She remained there until she saw them disappear around a corner of the corridor.
"Wow, I thought I'd never see the old Slytherin you again after your marriage to Lucius Malfoy," a voice said from inside the History of Magic classroom.
Standing in the doorway were Selene, Wanda, and Pandora.
Selene had been the one to speak.
"And here I thought your Occlumency had locked away that devilishly manipulative personality of yours forever," Selene added with amusement.
"Cissy was the scariest one back then," Pandora added.
"Oh, that needs more explanation," Wanda said with some interest, curious about a side of the former Lady Malfoy she didn't know.
Narcissa looked at them for a second before recovering her cold expression.
"There's no time for that. We gathered here to talk about finally doing something about Umbridge..."
Although, judging by the expressions on the other ladies' faces, it seemed they weren't going to let that go so easily.