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Hermione was not expecting quite so many ladies to be at Narcissa Malfoy's tea party. There had to be at least forty women there if there were any, and they were all watching Hermione as though she were the latest fashion on the runway.
"You could have warned me it would be like this," Hermione said through gritted teeth as she kept a smile plastered on her face as she and Narcissa sat at their private table for two at the head of the large room.
"Would you have come if I did?" asked Narcissa with a pleasant smile as she neatly poured out their cups, dropping in two lumps into her cup. "Sugar?"
"Two, please," Hermione answered, "and a bit of cream."
She stirred absently as she looked around at the room filled with mostly Slytherin women, but she noticed a few of the faces from other Houses as well. All of them were purebloods, however. She felt a bit out of place among them.
"If we're to further Tom's new agenda, we're going to have to bring in some-new blood," Hermione mentioned, raising one of her brows delicately to get her point across.
"Yes, my dear, I do understand your concern," Narcissa agreed. "But perhaps we should do so in-slow degrees, at first. I would not wish to frighten these ladies off, or they might decide to join Delores and her new husband instead."
"Yes, I heard about that," Hermione said, trying not to smirk. "Can you imagine that wedding night?"
"Hermione, dear, don't be crass," she chided. "You never know, it may very well have been quite enjoyable."
Then the two of them both sipped at their tea, and simultaneously both sputtered on their laughter as they each could no longer hold in the laughter over the very notion of Umbridge and Goyle in coital bliss.
"Gross!" Hermione added as she wiped at her mouth with a napkin.
"Undoubtedly," Narcissa agreed. "Shall we mingle a bit, my dear? The ladies will wish to hear your views-on politics, not on Umbridge, mind."
Hermione giggled again. "Yes, of course," she answered. "Although they'd probably find the latter much more fun."
"So, what do you think, gentlemen, who do we tackle first, someone who's easy, or the toughest cookie to crumble?" asked Harry of his two companions as the three stood together in the doorway of the Hog's Head after enjoying a light lunch and some casual conversation about their new mission."
"Let's go over to stir up some trouble at the old Avery place," said Lucius with a hopeful grin.
"Avery?" asked Tom with interest. "Is he still about?"
"I believe it is his son, my L-I mean Tom," Lucius answered, almost bowing his head as well but stopping short of it.
Harry quirked a smile at the man. "Old habits die hard, yeah?"
"So it would seem," he agreed.
"Well then, let's go have a bit of fun, shall we?" Tom agreed.
"Just remember boys, keep frosty," Harry said. "No one there is going to be glad to see us."
"You've got that right," Lucius agreed, and then the three joined hands and Apparated away.
The three men pieced together just outside a rickety old structure that looked more like an ancient barn than the ancestral home of a prominent Wizarding family, but that was as it was meant to be. The insides of the structure were, of course, a much grander affair, to be sure. As the butler opened the door to let them inside and asked them to wait in the foyer, Harry looked around at the impressive chandelier and paintings on the walls.
Behind his back, Tom handed Lucius a small mirror and cast him a meaningful glance, which was returned, and then showed Lucius one of his own as well. Each of them started looking around surreptitiously for places to put them, and acted nonchalant any time Harry happened to look their way. Eventually Lucius magically hid his in the wall near the front door, but Tom held onto his for the time being.
The butler returned shortly and led the trio to the parlor, where a somewhat displeased Avery sat waiting for them. "What do you three want?" he barked irritably as they entered the room. He neither stood nor bothered to offer them a seat. While Lucius and Harry stepped into the center of the room, Tom casually ambled toward the fireplace to warm himself, and took the opportunity to plant his mirror into the wall while he was there.
"Nothing much," he said as he stood there, not looking at the man. "The Minister has asked us to go around and talk to all the supremacists about the error of their ways, and as it seems I was a former instigator of that ideology, I've come along to let you know I am no longer a supporter of it." At this, Tom turned to look the man in the eye, his brow raised in challenge. "As I am certain you are already aware."
"Yes, I was made well aware of the fact," he said with a sneer. "I don't care much for turncoats myself."
"But surely you must understand that when a situation warrants it, change is inevitable," Tom insisted. "If we do not embrace new blood now, there will be no wizards at all in future. You must accept the truth of it, Avery. We are a dying breed if you do not."
"I'll accept nothing of the sort," he insisted, surging forward so their noses were touching as he glared hotly into Tom's eyes. "You're lying. You wanted that little piece of Muggle fluff to wife, so you turned traitor to us so you could have her. I'm not listening to another word you have to say. And you, Lucius, how could you take his side in this? You make me sick! So afraid of going back to Azkaban, were you? You're the worst kind of traitor there is, one who betrays just to save his own worthless hide."
"I did it to save my son," Lucius said proudly. "I didn't want him to make the same mistakes I had made, to live the same lies I had lived. The same lies that you are still living even now. But it's not too late, Avery, you can escape the lies, too. Renounce the supremacist way of life, and discover the truth. Let go of all your senseless hate. It's killing you inside, even as it was killing me."
"No!" he shouted. "No, but if you do not leave, I'll be killing you. I want you all to leave, now! Leave, and never return. Especially you, Potter. Never return to this place, or I shall kill you with my bare hands, Ministry official or not!"
"Are you threatening us, Avery?" Tom asked in a cool tone that made the man pause in mid-tirade. He recognized that tone, even though the man using it was far younger than the one he remembered. The blood chilled in his veins as he looked into his eyes.
"N-no, sir," he stammered, backing away. "Of course not, my-my Lord?"
"It's Officer Riddle, you silly man," Tom said with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "And we will be returning here once a month to check in on you, Avery. To make sure you are not breaking the law. Ministry orders."
"Of course, sir-Officer Riddle, sir," he said, falling into the chair behind him.
"Good day to you, Avery," said Harry as he and the others headed back toward the door as one, and Apparated away at exactly the same time, just as if they'd rehearsed the thing.
Avery rubbed his jaw as he watched them go, then stepped over to his fireplace and threw in a bit of floo powder. "Oi, Goyle, I just had me an interesting visit. You may want to hear about this."
"Hermione? Sweetheart?" Tom called as he popped into the house later that day. She looked up from her book and smiled, ready for the kiss she knew she was going to get. "What did the doctor say?" he asked hopefully as he sat on the couch beside her and pulled her into his lap.
"He said I may as well not bother looking for long term employment just yet, because I'm going to be busy for the next several months bringing another Riddle into the world," she teased him. "What a scary thought."
"Be nice, woman!" he said, swatting her backside and kissing her at the same time. "I love you so much!"
"I love you too, Tom," she said happily. "I can't wait to get all huge and bitchy and make you go get me ice cream at all hours of the night-"
"Ha!" he laughed. "I think you're getting bitchy already, by the sound of it. How was your tea party?"
"Not as boring as I thought it would be," she admitted, earning a smug look in response. "Yes, you told me so on both counts. You know everything, just like you said, and I owe you ten million kisses. So if I owe you that many, I'd better get started, don't you think?"
Tom laughed at her. "Love, that many kisses will take you our entire lives to administer, but if we go upstairs to get started, you might appease me for the time being."
"Before dinner, you naughty boy?"
"I believe, my dear wife, that it has been well established that I have a penchant for being a naughty boy," he answered with a droll little smile on his handsome face.
Hermione giggled, and said, "Yes, I suppose it has."
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