Note: Sorry that this hasn't been updated! Instead of just jumping back in though, I'm gonna rewrite. I promise it won't be like rereading the same stuff over and over again but I understand if people don't want to read it. But, here we go again! P.S I have a Lucius/Narcissa story "Hearts of Stone" I'm working on that will have Juliet's mother and explain more about that.

Though she would never admit it, Hermione Granger was fully aware that she was genius. There had never been a book she couldn't read, regardless of age or content, had never been a math problem she couldn't solve given time, and there were very rarely to no times when she would find herself confused by what was going on around her. Sure, there were times at Hogwarts when she encountered something she did not know in the wizarding world but by the next day she probably knew more about it than most purebloods.

Unfortunately, her genius did come at a price. That price was social ability. She had never really had a boyfriend (Viktor had not been her boyfriend per say) and had never really had many friends. There were Harry and Ron of course, but that was it. She was extremely close to them, but fourth year had begun to complicate things. Harry had matured so much over that year because of the Triwizard Tournament and the boy Hermione had grown to love as her brother had begun to fade. And then there was Ron. She had liked him throughout all of her third year but when she started to like Viktor she realized that Ron, like Harry, was nothing more than her brother figure. But, being as smart as she was, Hermione could easily see that Ron still liked her. Voldemort's return had only made things so much worse. Almost immediately, Harry had been whisked off by Dumbledore and had not even taken the train home. That had left Hermione with Ron and Neville on the train ride home, which hadn't been so bad. It was when she got off the train and, instead of her parents greeting her, retired Professor Lupin had called her over.

Hermione had been getting the Muggle paper delivered to Hogwarts since her first year and had read about the fire in London. It had been so close to Voldemort's return that she had feared that the fire, which had taken out three buildings and two townhouses in downtown London, had been caused by Death Eaters but the Daily Prophet reported nothing.

It wasn't until Hermione got off the train and Lupin had called her over that the young Gryffindor realized something was wrong. It was with a gentle voice that the werewolf had been forced to break the news; the fire in London had taken out a small library. Not the main one but the one by Hermione's house. Hermione knew what had happened before Lupin finished speaking. Her parents always volunteered at the library. There was no need for her to be told to that they had been there when the fire started.

Hermione had returned to home with Lupin, who stayed with her for the next two weeks. He had helped her with funeral arraignments as well as all the paperwork. He had also called most of her wizarding friends to the funeral. All of the Weasleys, except Percy had come as well as many of her teachers. The only teacher missing was Professor Snape, who Dumbledore said was extremely busy. Apart from Snape, the only person missing was Harry. Dumbledore had avoided directly saying why Harry was missing, only giving vague answers. He had told Hermione that her summer house had been arraigned and he would pick her up the following Friday.

That Friday, Hermione was ready. She had taken everything she would ever need from the house and had cried all the tears that were in her body. When she opened the door to find Dumbledore and Snape standing there she looked completely composed.

"Hello, Professors," she greeted calmly.

"Hello, Hermione," returned Dumbledore. Snape merely nodded, which was as good as hello from him. With the composure of someone far older than herself, Hermione motioned the two in, asked them if they wanted water and politely invited them to sit.

"Hermione, once again I cannot say how sorry I am that all of this happened," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you," she muttered. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Though you are certainly not the first child I've seen to go through such tragedy." Dumbledore had continued, almost ignoring Hermione entirely. "There's Harry, of course. I know another young lady whose parents were brutally murdered when she was sixteen. Severus, himself was orphaned when he was thirteen."

"Oh?" Hermione could not keep her surprise at that one. The more she thought about, the more she realized she knew nothing about her Professor, other than his name and that he had once been a Death Eater.

"My father killed my mother before killing himself," Snape said flatly.

"That seems a fine note to leave on." As always with Dumbledore it was impossible to tell whether he was joking or serious. He did stand up however and asked for Hermione to get her bags.

He cast some spell on them to make them pocket sized and returned them to her before asking for her hand, telling her they were to Apparate to her new house. She did so with only a quick look at the home of her childhood.

In the next second she found herself standing a beautiful front lawn that had to have been the size of her street back home. Not only that but she could have sworn she saw a peacock before she turned around to look at the actual house.

It was without a doubt the most beautiful house she'd ever seen. At least as large as Hogwarts itself it was a traditional English manor that she would have expected royalty to live in. One thing was for certain; it was not the Burrow which was where she had been expecting to stay.

"Where are we?" she finally asked. She thought she saw Snape smile at her confusion but as quickly as it was there it was gone. Dumbledore certainly did however.

"You'll see. You thought you were staying at the Burrow, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes. Are the Weasleys here?" she asked hopefully.

"That would not go over well," Snape muttered. Dumbledore almost seemed ready to laugh but did not.

"No. The Weasleys are staying with a relative. Due to the help you that you and Ronald have given Harry we believe Voldemort may single you two out. I am not trying to scare you but I feel you should know the truth. We decided that it would be best that you two were somewhere less obvious than the Burrow," Dumbledore told her.

"Oh. Is Harry going to be here?"

That time Snape let out a full laugh. It scared Hermione for a second because of how full it was and how…..uncreepy it sounded.

"No, Harry is not going to be here. We thought it best he be on his own for a while. Severus, are you going to be alright?" When Snape had continued to laugh Dumbledore had turned to him and actually looked rather concerned the Potions teacher would hurt himself. Snape quieted immediately and returned to the same stoic man Hermione had for the past four years. "What time is it?"

"3: 47." Snape answered without even looking at a watch but Dumbledore took the answer as correct.

"I'm surprised at how quiet the house is," Dumbledore muttered. "Let's go."

Snape seemed far more familiar with house from the lazy way he walked up to the door and simply gave it one hard pound for a knock. It was only a second after that, before there had been any noise from inside, that he turned back to Dumbledore.

"They're out back, I can hear them," he told Dumbledore. The Headmaster nodded before making the trip around back to reveal the most beautiful garden, complete with a gazebo and its own lake. The only thing that wrecked the idle scene was the music blasting from the gazebo itself.

"Turn that down!"

Hermione hadn't seen the young girl that was swimming in the lake until she popped out from the water. When she did emerge Hermione was certain that she was looking at the most beautiful girl in the world. Thick black hair that had swirled around her, tan skin that had to have been golden it was so perfect and dark black eyes that looked extremely familiar. What was even more familiar however was the voice that Hermione heard next.

"Make me."

Dumbledore started laughing before Hermione had turned to face him with the look of utter shock on her face.

"Yes, Miss Granger. That is who you think it is," he told her. "He's on the gazebo."

And there he was. Lounging on a chair on the gazebo, he looked far more at ease than Hermione had seen him at school. A white tee-shirt and dark jeans only accented how pale he was and made him look almost inhuman. His hair was blonder than ever before, probably from being in the sun during the summer months. The most shocking thing was that he was laughing, something she had not seen him do in four years at Hogwarts.

"Fine then, at least change the—what the hell?" the girl had begun to pull herself out of the lake and had seen Hermione and the Professors. "Hello, Professors. Who are you?"

"What?" Draco, who had his back to his guests, had to turn around and strain his neck over the chair but when he saw who was there his eyes narrowed into the stormy slits that had glared at Hermione for her entire Hogwarts career. "Professors. What the hell are you doing here?" he asked Hermione, swaggering over to where she was standing.

"Draco, I'm fairly certain that neither of you parents would like you being so rude to your guest." Dumbledore kept his voice as gentle as ever but everyone heard the underlying warning beneath it. "Juliet, it's lovely to see you again."

"Nice to see you too, Professor. And I just figured out who you are," Juliet, the girl at Draco's side, had turned back to Hermione and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You're Hermione Granger."

"Yes. And you are?"

"Juliet Malfoy. I'm his cousin," she added with a point to Draco. "She's staying with us for the summer?"

"Yes," Dumbledore answered. "Draco, where are you parents?"

"They went out," he muttered. Hermione had only seen expressions on Draco before; anger and smugness. To see him with his head bowed and looking slightly embarrassed at the entire scene. "They didn't say when they would be back."

"They're here," Snape said suddenly. He was smiling slightly.

"Do you simply know this or can you hear them?" asked Dumbledore.

"I can hear them. Can't you?"

The Beast and the Harlot.
She's a dwelling place for demons.
She's a cage for every unclean spirit,
every filthy bird and makes us drink
the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.
Fallen now is Babylon the Great.*

"Hey, Draco?" asked Juliet as the music grew louder. "Weren't we supposed to something before Lucius and Narcissa got home?"

"Yeah. We were supposed to clean—"

"—oh, shit." Draco and Juliet spoke the last part in unison and exchanged the exact same look of slight panic. With impressive speed the two took of toward the house, practically stumbling over themselves to get inside.

"It seems that they have both inherited the speed of the Malfoys," Dumbledore laughed. "Come."

Snape led the way into the house with Dumbledore at his side and Hermione behind them. She was extremely confused, not only by the fact she was staying with the Malfoys (which meant Dumbledore trusted them) but also by the revelation of the true Malfoy family.

Inside Malfoy Manor was even grander than Hogwarts itself. The entrance hall alone was the size of five rooms in Hermione's old townhouse and decorated with hundreds of beautiful paintings. They were all wizarding paintings meaning they did move but that was not what caught Hermione's attention. It was the grand marble staircase, complete with long silver carpet. It looked like something that you would find a princess movie, not in someone's house.

"Next time, we should make it easier on both of us and let me drive."

"Darling, last time you drove you nearly drove into the house."

"That's because the last time I drove, I was trying to get to the house before you were arrested!"

"You almost hit the house."

"I made it. Hello, Professor Dumbledore."

The two voices had begun arguing outside the house and Hermione was shocked how easy it was to hear them. The argument seemed playful however and the smiles the couple was wearing when they entered only confused Hermione that much more.

She had seen Lucius Malfoy before, but never like this. Not only was he laughing but he was not dressed in his typical layers of rich black velvet. He was still wearing rich looking black fabric, but the short shirt looked silk rather than velvet. Also, there was no cane and he was carrying several boxes.

Next to him was the woman who had almost driven a car into Malfoy Manor, Narcissa Malfoy. Hermione had believed Juliet to be beautiful but Narcissa blew her niece out of the water. Her hair was so blonde that it was silver and her skin so white that it shimmered. A loose knee-length green skirt, green tank-top and a very, very large diamond pendant made her look that much more beautiful because of how simple her outfit was. She, like her husband of nearly twenty years (the two had married very young), was carrying a pile of boxes but she dropped them when she saw Dumbledore.

"Hello, Narcissa," Dumbledore returned. "Lucius."

"Hello." Lucius dropped the boxes as his wife had done but was facing Snape. "What's up, Sev?"

"What the hell are all those?" asked the Potions teacher, ignoring Lucius's question. Hermione was struck by the familiarity between the two and how at the sight of the Malfoy's, Snape had immediately eased up.

"Boxes from the headquarters. Sirius found some of our old things and some things from Lily and James he thought we would want," Narcissa explained.

"Lily and James Potter?" Hermione couldn't remain quiet after hearing that and it was only then that the two Malfoys seemed to notice her.

"You must be Hermione," Narcissa smiled. "Hello. I'm sorry about your parents, dear. Speaking of children. DRACO-LUCIUS AND JULIET, IF YOUR ROOMS AREN'T CLEAN THERE IS GOING TO BE HELL TO PAY!"

Narcissa was such a slight looking woman that the volume of her voice seemed like it had come from an entirely different person. Once done with her threat she smiled at Hermione with more caring than the Gryffindor would have thought possible of a Malfoy.

"I'm going to see how the demons are doing," she explained as she made her way up the stairs. "Lucius, can you get Hermione set up?"

"Sure. Which room?" he asked.

"The guest room. Idiot." Narcissa was getting further up the stairs and had to raise her voice louder and louder but Lucius was laughing.

"Which guest room, love?"

"I don't care! There's at least five!"

"You're going to have a very interesting, summer, Miss Granger," laughed Dumbledore.

A loud crash from upstairs and the sound of Juliet and Draco swearing only confirmed what Hermione had been thinking. Interesting was not the word she would have chosen.