Life in an Alien Land 1: In the Land of My Enemy

Thanks for all the feedback. There will be at least two if not three stories in this universe. As you can tell by the chapter title, Draco and Hermione's story is over. I hope you follow the others.

Thanks to Jilliane for her beta reading and her help in fixing my comma addiction.

Life in an Alien Land

Epilogue

"For Merlin's sake, Lucius, hold still." Tonks said as her husband fidgeted under the scrutiny of his onetime bed-partner, Hermione Malfoy nee Granger, and his unconventional wife. Tonks struggled with the Windsor knot, her tongue between her teeth in concentration.

Lucius flicked his flyaway hair from his face. "I do not see why I have to wear these togs when wizarding robes are more comfortable. The damned trousers are chafing me."

Tonks scolded, "I told you not to go commando. There's no help for it now. The ceremony is getting ready to start."

Hermione laughed, her belly large with child for the third time. "Lucius, you didn't."

"I do not see why during a wizarding wedding ceremony, wizarding robes are considered inappropriate, even if the Muggle Prime Minister is attending." Malfoy grabbed his wife's hand. "That will be enough, Claire, you'll damage the silk."

Lucius turned from his wife to the mirror. With a flick of his wand, the knot was perfect. He pulled his hair back in a long club and held his hand out for the leather thong he used to tie it back. Tonks placed it in his palm then slapped him on the buttocks. "Hurry up, Gorgeous, I still need to get in my dress. We can't have the stepmother of the groom gadding about in her smalls."

Lucius groaned with mock exasperation.

"You should check on Draco and see how bad his nerves are." Hermione hefted her bulk up from the seat. "I swear, I don't remember getting this large with Delphine or Scorpius."

"You were,” Lucius observed with some asperity.

Tonks guffawed, then hit her husband on the arm with a closed fist. "You be nice. That will be me in a few months."

Lucius blanched under his peaches and cream skin. "Do not remind me, Dearest. At my age having a grown son and an infant on the way, it's perfectly scandalous."

"Yes, and nothing in your past ever prepared you for scandal, Lucius Malfoy." Tonks said with a kiss to his cheek. "And I told you Claire was a private name."

Draco entered the room his hair wild and his eyes glassy. "Please tell me you know where Scorpius is."

"He's with Delphine and Niamh and the rest of the Averys. Molly took him there a while ago,” Hermione answered pacifically. "Darling, you have nothing to worry about. I'm sure everything will be fine."

Draco huffed, "You haven't seen him yet."

Draco turned on his heel and left. Hermione followed Draco over Tonks’ protests.

Hermione allow herself to be pulled into one of the Manor's bedrooms by the groom. "Gods, Hermione, you look lovely. I wish there were time for me to show you how beautiful I find you right now."

"What happened to that nervous man that came into the room only moments ago?" Hermione giggled. "Don't tell me it was all a ploy to get me alone with you."

Draco rubbed his hands over her taut belly. "I am still part Malfoy, even if I no longer live in the Manor."

"Good thing too,” Hermione said. "I would hate to have to commute such a long distance to see you. It's bad enough that you'll be starting Auror's Academy at the end of next year."

"Ginevra!" Snape's voice resounded down the gallery of the Malfoy family portraits. "Bloody buggering hell! Where are my trousers? I can't find my trousers!"

"Are you certain that you want him to officiate?" Draco asked. "I mean, Snape, well, he's still not the most popular choice of Officiate, and he is a little, well... volatile this time of the month."

"Yes, but he's our choice." Hermione said as his hands strayed below her burgeoning girth to the apex of her thighs. "Draco Malfoy, what do you think you are doing?"

"I'm hungry." He peered at her through his down-swept lashes, his grey eyes sparkling with mischief. "Isn't it in the vows that a wife is supposed to give her husband succour?"
Hermione laughed a low sound that she knew never failed to bewitch him. "I'm sure the house-elves could scare something up for you to eat. They certainly don't want you dying of hunger."

Draco fell to his knees and lifted the crème-coloured skirt of her wedding gown. "Or, I could help myself."

Hermione's breath hitched as he lifted the skirt of her dress and began wicked little nips on her thighs. "Draco, the door, it's not locked."

"That's nice." He continued his maddening nips until she widened her stance. He slid a finger over her silk clad centre. "Ooh, very nice."

He swiped the fabric with his tongue, parting her folds with an expert finger as he pushed her knickers aside. Hermione moaned. "If you continue, it won't only be Severus that is late to the ceremony."

"Good." Draco continued his ministrations, fucking her expertly with both his tongue and finger until she came around the digit, her muscles clamping almost painfully around it.

"Jesus, you two! You're supposed to wait 'til after the wedding." Ginny said from the doorway. "You're not even supposed to see each other yet."

"I'm not looking. I have my eyes firmly shut." Draco said as Hermione's eyes popped open to see her friend with her hands over her own eyes and a disgusted look on her face. Hermione thrust her skirt down and blushed.

"Please, you are the last person to complain about propriety after what you and Severus did in the library last night." Draco scoffed. "You do realise poor Harold is now scarred for life."

Ginny complained, "Can't you at least lock the door?"

Draco jerked away from Hermione and fell back on his bum with a laugh. "Can't you knock, Weaslette?"

"It's Snapette now, Ferret." Ginny retorted. "Severus needs you, something about the proper etiquette when addressing the Minster of Magic during the ceremony."

"Why not call him Lucius? That is his name." Draco said as he surreptitiously cast a Cleansing Charm over his face and Hermione's nether region. "Tell him I'll be there in a minute."

Ginny flounced out of the room as Draco gave his wife a lifted-brow look as if saying. "See what I mean?"

Ginny popped her head back into the room, her eyes tightly shut. "He needs you now, Draco."

&*&*&

When all was done, Draco and Hermione formally bonded and the wedding ball nearing completion, Draco lounged near his new wife. He reflected on the last five years and how he had changed from the picture of a scared little boy that others painted of him, to what he was now.

He wished he could say he had fully recovered his memories, but he had not. Only bits and pieces had surfaced. He was glad in some ways, but he wished he could remember the woman his mother was, not the way he had been forced to kill her. He wished that he could remember the very funny story that Ginny told of how Hermione had slapped him in his third year, not the blank surface he saw when he tried to envision the act.

He wished many things, but deep in the night, when his now wife stirred against him, or he rose to check on his children he knew that he had received a gift given by a psychopath to a mad little boy. He wondered sometimes if the Fates, God, or some other force had conspired in that last moment before the blast tore Voldemort from any existence, to give Draco one last wish.

He supposed if he had one at the time, it would have been that he end up where he was right now, with family and friends surrounding him and Hermione as his mate.

He spied his Father on the dance floor with Maeve Avery. An unformed mist swirled about them, encompassing them in an iridescent glow. Sometimes, when Draco was alone in the Manor, he thought he saw a face in the mist, and other times he sensed a pervading feeling of love and forgiveness as it encompassed him in an almost-embrace. He liked to think that the ghostly miasma was his mother, but he supposed he might never know.

The music ended and Lucius bowed formally to Maeve. His father and his Muggle mother's relationship had undergone a transformation from uneasy contempt to practical acceptance. Draco still could not believe his adoptive mother had read Lucius the riot act on the day that Draco ran away to find himself all those months ago. Maeve winked at Lucius as her husband claimed her hand and Lucius in his stoic, pure-blooded grace bestowed an amused smile upon the Muggle couple.

Sometimes Draco wished he could have that same ease with his father, but Lucius still blamed himself for the disastrous decisions he had made when he was still a young man. Lucius' desire to atone to Draco left him feeling uneasy in his son's presence.

Draco absently rubbed Hermione's back as she scooted forward in the seat. She had told him he used to do this for her with both Delphine and Scorpius. Somehow, he doubted that, but he let her have her little half-truths. It was better that way for them both.

His lovely wife gave him that lazy smile that always made him think of long weekend mornings and the possible ways to pleasure her. She leaned to him and kissed his cheek. "You look pensive, Darling.

Draco who was once Drew, a Death Eater, a ferret, and a madman, simply smiled and drew his wife into his arms. "I love you."

"I love you too," she answered.

He wondered, if things had been different-- if her friend Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort-- if she would have still ended up with him, or if her life would have taken another turn; maybe for better, maybe for worse.

Who could say what life might occur in that alien land that was mere possibility?



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