By Reason Of Birth

Five days later, Hermione, Caoilinn, and Zarina were in Milan, shopping for a wedding dress. While having one that was special-made would have been preferable, not even the best wizarding seamstress could create a wedding dress in one week. Zarina didn’t want anything white or even all too fancy, she just wanted something special. Hermione wasn’t quite sure why she was there, other than that Zarina had requested her to come. After all, Caoilinn was her best mate; she was nothing more than the woman’s son’s new girlfriend.

It wasn’t until they had been shopping for three hours, and Hermione’s feet felt like they were about to fall off, that they finally came upon the perfect dress. It had only taken almost one hundred rejects. It was made from light purple faerie silk, and reached just below her knees, endlessly shimmering as it gently swayed against her legs. The bodice was tight-fitting but modest, with a round collar and extremely short flutter sleeves. Rather than a robe, it was paired with a sheer purple veil that sat on the crown of her head and fell around her body, ending slightly above the dress’ hemline.

Zarina was positively radiant in it as she clapped her hands once and looked at the other two women. “Now, to find your dresses!”

Hermione had to sit down from the horrible shock that they weren’t done shopping, and that now she was going to be forced to be the one trying on clothes. Wait. What? “Why do we need dresses?” Hermione asked, confused.

“This may be a quickie wedding at the Ministry, but I still need attendants,” came the smiling answer. “The two of you are mine, and Blaise and Jonas’ son are his.”

“Jonas has a son?” Hermione asked, becoming even more confused. She had never heard of this son before.

“Yes, Jacob Bradley. He was in Ravenclaw, left Hogwarts last year. He’s currently studying in Italy, but he’ll be back for the wedding,” came the distracted response. “Enough about him, though. I’m thinking yellow. Yes, you’ll both look divine in yellow,” Zarina said, looking over the Nott women critically.

And before Hermione could say ‘pumpkin pasty’, she was being herded into a dressing room with four different yellow robes strewn over her arms. Another hour passed in a blur with Hermione and Caoilinn trying on dress after dress, and robe after robe.

Eventually, both women had found dress robes that Zarina approved of, and all of the packages had been sent home via Delivery Floo; which, while more of a hassle than owls, was far less likely to end in damaged goods.

Relief could plainly be seen on both Hermione and Caoilinn’s faces as they sat down at a little bistro, and both mother and daughter simultaneously removed their shoes discreetly under the table to give their aching feet freedom to move and breathe outside their heels.

They chatted idly while they waited for their food, but it wasn’t until after their meals had been served that the conversation became interesting. Although, in Hermione’s opinion, any conversation that centred on her boyfriend was interesting.

“So, this morning I went to Gringotts with Blaise to sign over the majority of his inheritance,” Zarina sighed, obviously not entirely thrilled about having done it.

“Why?” Caoilinn asked, dumbfounded. Inheritances weren’t just signed over while the person leaving the inheritance was still alive. Hermione knew why, having had a long talk with Blaise and Theo about it, and she was glad that Zarina had done it, if only to help assuage some of Blaise’s fears.

“Blaise has somehow gotten it into his head that Jonas only wants to marry me for my money. It’s not true, but I think that Jonas’ insistence that I sell the house has something to do with it. Jonas believes that if I have the house, that I would be more likely to leave him. Which is just silly. After all, I have not left any of my husbands. They have all left me,” she sniffed.

“Well, in their defence, Zarina, they did all die,” Caoilinn said, trying not to laugh at her friends’ theatrics.

“That’s not the point.”

“You’ve gotten married in less time than this before,” Caoilinn observed as Hermione sat back, listening to the conversation and enjoying learning more about Zarina’s past. “Only, I’m sure that Blaise has noticed that Jonas does not fit into your usual husband-type.”

“Yes, that is one of his reasons for believing the worst in Jonas. With the others, even when he was very young, he knew that they would not be around for very long.”

“Zarina, everyone knew that none of them would be around very long. Even Blaise’s father was almost one hundred when you were married.” This bit of news took Hermione by surprise. Hermione had known that Blaise’s father was one of Zarina’s previous eight husbands who had died while married to her, but she had always believed that Zarina had caused their deaths; not that they had died normal, natural deaths from old age.

“I know. He just doesn’t believe that, for the first time in my life, I am marrying for love. I do love Jonas, and he loves me, and I think that we will be very happy together.”

“Perhaps,” Hermione interjected, entering the conversation, “he would be able to see it better if you were to slow down a bit. You and Jonas have only been dating for three months, and he doesn’t think that is long enough to know whether Jonas really does love you, or just loves being married.

“Also, I think he may be afraid that if Jonas really does love you, and you love Jonas, that it would somehow push him away, like you would need him less, and therefore care for him less. After all, as my mother said, Jonas doesn’t fit into the mould of your previous husbands. It makes him stand out more than the others as someone you would consider special, and someone you would want to stay with for a long time, rather than just waiting for them to die.” Hermione was worried that she may have overstepped her boundaries, but she knew that Blaise would never say any of those things to his mother, and since the woman didn’t understand why Blaise was so suspicious of Jonas, someone had to.

“Blaise told you that?” Zarina asked, slightly shaken.

“Not all of it. But I’m sure that’s what he’s feeling.”

“It never occurred to me that the reason he’s had problems with Jonas since I started dating him was because he felt threatened by him. After all, Blaise is my son. No one and nothing will ever replace him,” Zarina said. Concern slipped into her voice, and Hermione wondered if there was a chance that she would, in fact, push back the wedding to give Jonas a chance to prove to Blaise that he really did love Blaise’s mother and didn’t have an alternate reason for wanting to marry her so quickly.

“I think you and Blaise need to have a talk later,” Caoilinn advised.

“Yes, I think we do. I hope he will understand that Jonas and I love each other. After all, we may have only been dating for three months, but I know without a doubt that if the roles were reversed, he would happily marry you, Hermione. Just as quickly if he believed that you would accept him.”

Caoilinn didn’t look surprised at this, but she was very amused at Hermione’s reaction of spitting out the sip of water she had just taken, so that she showered the entire portion of the table in front of her. “E.. excuse me?” Hermione stuttered, wiping her mouth with her napkin.

Zarina and Caoilinn both started laughing, incredibly entertained at the stricken look on Hermione’s face.

“Don’t worry,” Zarina said, patting Hermione’s hand once her laughter stopped. “If Blaise asks you to marry him, it won’t be until you take your N.E.W.T.’s and leave Hogwarts, at the very earliest.”

“Who’s worried?” Hermione choked out, failing at sounding casual.

Chapter End Notes:
and as always, thanks to all you great great readers and reviewers, and to Lupie for being my wonderful beta!