Chapter Text
The days leading up to Friday seemed both never-ending and too short to Narcissa. She had admitted to herself just a few days ago that she was actually nervous. She couldn’t remember the last time anything had made her this nervous, but this was important to her. She wasn’t terribly worried about getting something wrong, she'd played the social scene for so many years, she knew how to act. Not that she in any way intended to act as she would around the rest of the high-society women she'd called her friends. No, she was going to be charming and herself. She quite looked forward to it.
Right now, Narcissa was standing in her closet and trying to decide what she was going to wear for the evening. Hermione had, as promised, sent her an owl the day before with instructions on what to wear. Not that they had been very descriptive. She looked down at the letter she had in her hand and easily found the sentence she was looking for.
“Wear something pretty, but comfortable,” Narcissa read out loud. She looked up, rolling her eyes fondly, “very helpful.”
She folded the letter and placed it back in her corset and then went back to perusing her closet.
“Pretty but comfortable,” she murmured again, “it doesn’t narrow it down much.”
She finally, after almost an hour of looking, decided on a dark blue dress characterized by the sweetheart neckline and bell sleeves. Her black pumps were just visible under the hemline.
Narcissa admired herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but spin to see the dress flare out around her. She nodded, pleased with the look, and sat down at her vanity to apply her makeup.
Just as she had finished putting on her lipstick, Pippy popped into her room, “Miss Granger has arrived, Mistress.”
Narcissa made eye contact through the mirror and nodded, “thank you, Pippy. I’ll be right there.”
Pippy popped away with a small bow as Narcissa turned back to the mirror to put on her necklace, grabbed the matching earrings and made her way towards the foyer. She was putting in the last earring when Hermione looked up from where she had been looking at a painting on the wall. Narcissa couldn’t help the small hitch in her breath at the beautiful smile Hermione sent her. She looked stunning, Narcissa noticed, in her wine red knee-length skirt, black shirt and matching wine red heels, her cloak carried over the arm also holding her purse.
Narcissa smiled back as she made her way down the stairs and happily accepted the hand Hermione extended, laughing quietly as she was pulled in against Hermione's side.
“You look wonderful, Narcissa,” Hermione said before capturing her lips in a sweet kiss. Narcissa hummed against her and placed an arm around Hermione's shoulders.
“As do you, darling.”
They stepped back from each other, Narcissa giving a short swish of her wand that had her cloak and purse appearing on the side table.
Hermione once again extended a hand to Narcissa who accepted and, arm in arm, they left the cottage.
Line break
They were led to their table by their waiter while Narcissa was taking in the interior of the restaurant Hermione had chosen. Narcissa hadn’t been in here even though she had planned it after their opening just over two months ago. It was located a few doors down to Twilfitt and Tattings, which gave it a nice view of Diagon Alley.
Hermione was smiling at her when she caught her eyes as she held out the chair for Narcissa to sit down. “Do you approve?” she asked as she sat down in her chair across from Narcissa.
Narcissa nodded, “it’s perfect.”
Their waiter handed them their menus and left them to themselves.
Hermione gently nudged Narcissa with her hand to get her to look up from her menu, “how’s your week been?”
“It’s been good. Nothing too interesting happening at St. Mungo’s, which is a blessing,” she replied while putting down her menu.
“Yes, I saw you were made Healer a few months back.”
Narcissa nodded a proud smile on her lips, “yes, it’s been a dream of mine since I was around 14. To have it come true, finally, is wonderful.”
“What department are you in?”
Narcissa's answer was delayed as the waiter came to take their order.
“I'm in the spell damage department,” Narcissa replied when they had placed their orders and the waiter had left again. “And where are you right now? You’ve kept out of the papers remarkably well the last couple of months.”
“It’s been easy to stay out of the papers. I've been at Hogwarts since September, apprenticing under Minerva. I may or may not be planning on taking the transfiguration post next September. It’s wonderful to be there, especially with Harry having the defence position.”
Narcissa nodded, “I’d imagine you’d be a good teacher. How long have you been thinking about it? Becoming a teacher?”
“Fifth year,” Hermione said with a smile.
“That smile tells me there’s a story behind that and that it wasn’t because of the career counselling,” Narcissa raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
“No,” Hermione laughed quietly, “at the times it wasn’t as fun as it seems now, but Draco might have told you we were caught running an illegal group?”
Narcissa nodded, “he did but he never told me what kind of group it was.”
“We essentially made our own defence class with Harry at the helm. And I just remember seeing the joy on Harry’s face whenever someone got a spell right, and also my own experience with helping, especially the younger kids, and I wanted to do that, while not having the threat of war hanging over my head.”
Narcissa smiled but was kept from saying something with the arrival of their food. They both silently agreed on changing the topic. The war was still a sore topic and both Narcissa's and Hermione's expression got a little darker at the mention.
The rest of the dinner passed with small talk. They'd just gotten their dessert when Narcissa turned to look at Hermione, “so, what’s the plan after this?”
Hermione held out a piece of her cake in lieu of answering and looked expectantly at Narcissa, who shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips, “what is it?”
“It’s a strawberry daiquiri cheesecake. It’s wonderful. Try it, go on.”
Narcissa hesitated for a moment before leaning forward and taking the piece offered.
Hermione tried to get a read on Narcissa's face, but she gave nothing away. “Well? Do you like it?”
Narcissa remained impassive for a moment before smirking and nodded.
Hermione clicked her tongue loudly, “you're so mean,” she said, laughing.
Narcissa just shrugged, “you never answered my question, though.”
“I know.”
“You're not going to, are you?”
Hermione shook her head, “nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’.
Narcissa sighed but picked up her fork and took a bite of her own dessert, a chocolate cake. And while Hermione was busy drinking her tea, she leaned over and stole another piece of her cake, laughing quietly at the outrage on Hermione's face and simply shrugged in reply, a clear “what are you going to do” aimed at her.
“Mean cake-stealing woman. You're lucky you're so pretty.”
Narcissa was laughing at Hermione but blushed slightly when she called her pretty and looked down at her plate.
“You okay?” Hermione asked, ducking her head slightly to catch Narcissa's eyes.
“I… yes. It’s just been a long time since someone has called me pretty and meant it instead of the usual meaningless one you get at parties by those who don’t like you,” Narcissa replied, still not fully looking at Hermione.
Hermione reached out and covered one of Narcissa's hands with her own, “get used to it, because I'm not going to stop unless you tell me to.”
Narcissa gave a small smile and flipped her hand over and intertwined their fingers.
They finished their desserts and paid the bill. Hermione offered Narcissa her arm and led her out the door onto Diagon Alley.
“Can I apparate us?” Hermione asked. Narcissa nodded and Hermione apparated them to the roof of a building strung with fairy lights, the floor covered in blankets.
“Where are we?” Narcissa asked, turning on the spot to take it all in, wonder in her eyes. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s the roof of my building. It’s clear skies so I thought we’d stargaze for a while.” She turned to look at Narcissa to see her reaction.
Meanwhile, Narcissa was still turning in slow circles to take everything in before stopping when she was facing Hermione again, a brilliant smile on her face. She took the hand Hermione extended and let herself be led towards the blankets and laid down beside Hermione.
“Tell me something about yourself?” Hermione asked after they'd laid in silence for a while, turning to face Narcissa.
Narcissa turned as well, resting on her elbow, “what do you want to know?”
Hermione smiled at her before saying, “something that’ll surprise me.”
Narcissa seemed to think for no more than a second and then a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes, “my left arm is shorter than my right.”
Hermione looked at her disbelievingly, “what? No, it’s not.”
Narcissa nodded and sat up, “it is,” she held out both arms in front of her to demonstrate. “It’s called Erb’s Palsy. I've had it all my life.”
“But your arm is like a hand shorter than the other! You really can't stretch it?” Hermione had sat up too and was looking intriguingly at Narcissa's arms.
Narcissa shook her head, laughing quietly at Hermione's shock before she lifted her arms over her head. Her right arm extended all the way over her head, but her left hand didn’t reach further than her ear. “This is as high as I can lift it without help,” she then grabbed her left hand with her right and lifted them both over her head, almost as high as her right could go on its own, “and this is as high as it can go with help.” When she let go, her left arm fell down quickly.
“Can I ask about it?” Hermione asked hesitantly.
Narcissa nodded, “I wouldn’t have shown you if I didn’t want questions. Ask away.”
“Stretch it again?”
Narcissa laughed but stretched her hands out in front of her again.
“How did it happen?” Hermione had her full focus on Narcissa's left arm but looked up at Narcissa when she let her arms drop.
“It gets heavy rather quickly,” she said as a quick explanation. “At birth. I got stuck and the healers started fearing brain damage when I wouldn’t move so they resorted to pulling at my arm which resulted in damage to some nerves in my shoulder, which resulted in limited movement slight sensibility disturbance. It isn’t numb, but I still have a higher pain tolerance in my left arm, than in my right. Mine is, luckily, a mild version of it, which is why it isn’t too visible. Some people have very little moveability in their affected arm.”
Hermione looked fascinated but not condescending or pitying, which was a relief to Narcissa. The amount of pity and condescension she'd received when she'd told people was enough for her to want to strangle the next person who tried to “help”.
“Isn’t there anything that can be done about it?”
“There are surgeries that can be performed, yes. My parents were initially told that it would go away after a couple of months on its own, but that obviously didn’t happen. And because it isn’t very severe the risks weren’t deemed worth it. I did a lot of physical therapy before I started Hogwarts to give me as much moveability as possible.”
Hermione reached out and took Narcissa's left hand in her own, “can I try and pull it towards me?”
Narcissa nodded with a small smile, “yes, but gently and only until I say stop.”
“Of course!” Hermione reassured before slowly starting to pull but stopped at the slightly pained grimace on Narcissa's face and quickly let go which resulted in Narcissa's arm simply flopping down ungracefully between them.
Narcissa winced when it hit the ground and quickly picked it up again. “Next time, please don’t just let go. I don’t have the best reflexes with it so I usually can't react quick enough to prevent it from falling if I don’t expect it.”
“I'm so sorry,” Hermione rushed out, looking terribly guilty.
Narcissa smiled at her and reached out to grab Hermione's hand, “I know you didn’t do it on purpose, darling, it’s okay.”
Hermione nodded but still looked uncertain.
“Hermione, darling, please don’t feel guilty. And whatever you do, don’t coddle me. That’s the worst thing you can do to me.”
Hermione nodded but she still looked uncertain which made Narcissa let go of her hand to gently grab her chin to force her to look Narcissa in the eye. “I'm serious, Hermione. I'm fine. I promise. I'm not fragile. Don’t treat me any different than you would have half an hour ago, please.”
“Okay. I will. Or won't,” Hermione grimaced at her own rambling, “you know what I mean.”
Narcissa just laughed at her and nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments before Narcissa grabbed Hermione's attention, “you still have more questions. I can tell. Please, just ask.”
Hermione looked up from where she'd been looking at Narcissa's hands. Narcissa cleared her throat pointedly and said, “Hermione, please. Don’t treat me differently.”
Hermione shook her head and seemed to snap out of her trance like state. “No, of course, I'm sorry. Can I still ask?”
“You have my permission to ask as many questions as you want. I'd rather you ask questions than make your own assumptions about me.”
“Does it hinder you? Or rather, how much does it hinder you?”
Narcissa smiled at Hermione's, very accurate, correction. “It doesn’t hinder me too much. Remember that I've been like this since I was born so I don’t know anything other than this. I don’t know what it’s like to have a “normal” arm. There are of course some things that I can't do, but I've gotten very good at compensating in a lot of areas. Now, enough about me. What about you, dear? Tell me something about yourself?”
Hermione hummed, clearly trying to think of something, “you set the bar quite high with your fact. I don’t think I have anything that can rival that.” While she'd been thinking, a frown had slowly appeared on her forehead which Narcissa reached out to smooth.
“It doesn’t have to be s big fact, darling. Just something I don’t know about you.”
While she was still thinking of something, she laid back down on the blankets and looked up at the stars, pulling Narcissa down with her so they were lying side by side again. Narcissa grabbed one of Hermione's hands and started playing with her fingers.
“Okay, I have one now. I speak fluent Italian.”
Narcissa stopped playing with Hermione's hands briefly and turned her head to look at her, “really? How come?”
Hermione nodded slightly, “my mum is Afro-Italian. She met my dad while he was on holiday and eventually moved up here to live with him.”
“Say something?” Narcissa requested.
“Qualcosa,” Hermione replied a smile playing on her lips.
“What does it mean?”
“It means ‘something’,” Hermione said, now openly laughing.
Narcissa threw Hermione's hand back on her stomach while trying not to laugh, “oh, you arse.”
“Scusa, bella.”
“Please tell me it actually means something and that you're not just pulling my leg,” Narcissa said, laughing quietly.
“It means ‘sorry, beautiful’,” Hermione replied, reaching out to hold Narcissa's hand again. In response, Narcissa curled up against Hermione, resting her head on her shoulders.
“You know you can't sleep here,” Hermione murmured, gently combing her fingers through Narcissa's hair.
Narcissa simply mumbled a quiet “okay” while remaining curled up against Hermione. Hermione let her rest there for a few minutes before she sat up, making Narcissa sit up as well before she scooped her up making Narcissa squeal slightly in surprise.
“You're beginning to make this a habit, Hermione,” Narcissa spoke against Hermione's shoulder, too comfortable in her position and trusting that Hermione wouldn’t drop her.
Hermione just hummed in reply, pressing a soft kiss to Narcissa's hair and apparating them to Black Cottage. Hermione sat Narcissa down gently and guided her to the door. She grabbed Narcissa around the waist and pulled her in, so they were standing front to front. She pressed a kiss to Narcissa's cheeks and whispered, “you know, I noticed something when I arrived that I hadn’t noticed when I dropped you off this Saturday.”
“Oh?” Narcissa was a little bit more interested in the kisses Hermione was slowly placing on her face than what she was saying but she tried to fake interest.
“Cottage seems a bit misleading when it’s more like a small mansion,” Hermione murmured in between kisses.
Narcissa conceded with a small tilt of her head, “true, but compared to the size of Black Manor, this looks like a cottage.”
Hermione barked out a small laughed and pulled back to be able to look at Narcissa, “well, I guess from that perspective, it makes sense.”
Narcissa simply smiled back and leaned forward to rest her head against Hermione's shoulder, “I had a wonderful time today.”
“As did I. let me take you out again?” Hermione put a hand on Narcissa's hip and pulled her closer.
“No,” she could feel Hermione starting to pull back but continued before she had a chance, “I want to take you out on a date. I have Wednesday off next week. Does that work for you?”
Hermione quickly relaxed and nodded, “I'm sure I can get Minerva to give me the day off.”
“Wonderful,” Narcissa said, pulling back and looking at Hermione, “brunch?”
“Brunch sounds wonderful. Owl me the details?”
Narcissa nodded before pulling Hermione in for a kiss, cradling her cheek in her right hand, her left resting on Hermione's hip. She still had her eyes closed a moment longer when they pulled back. “Thank you for today. It was truly wonderful.”
Hermione returned the sentiment and pressed a quick kiss to Narcissa's lips, “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
Narcissa nodded, a content smile playing on her lips as she turned around and opened the door before turning again to watch Hermione leave. Hermione raised her hand in a quick wave before apparating home.
Narcissa closed the door, leaning up against it briefly before she made her way towards her bedroom, a smile still on her lips.