The Joys of Married Life
A/N: Hey! My name's Carmel and this is my first ever Draco/Hermione fan fiction! I hope you enjoy it and I'd really appreciate it if you left me some reviews to just let me know what you thought of it! A few things; I own absolutely nothing but the plotline and maybe one or two made up characters that I created to fit in with the story, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors that I haven't corrected myself, and please let me know what you think – even if you hate it – although I'd appreciate in if you'd be kind! Also, this is a Draco/Hermione fan fiction with some Harry/Ginny and Ron/Lavender and maybe others but there are no same sex or professor/pupil relations. I'm not 100% against them but I don't write things to do with them, AND I may not be very regular with all of my updates and things, but I promise to try my hardest to get the chapters up as quickly as I possibly can, and reviews will help!
Ok, enough of my babbling! Enjoy!
Summary:
Draco and Hermione have just returned from their honeymoon! Join them on their journey through married life including bothersome babies, infuriating in laws, money woes and inflated egos. Is married life really all that bad?
Chapter One: Home Sweet Home
"Mmm!" exclaimed Hermione Malfoy as she took a sip from her steaming mug of hot chocolate; a small piece of heaven. She leaned back into the plump cushions on her leather sofa, propped a huge tomb of a book onto her lap, closed her eyes in peaceful bliss and sighed. This was the one thing that she had missed. Sure sipping a tropical cocktail whilst relaxing on a nice sandy beach in the beautiful Bahamas was nice, but nothing beats coming home to a nice cup of hot chocolate with a big, juicy book to get stuck into. This was what had kept her going throughout the long and tiring journey home.
She and Draco had had to travel the muggle way, as it had been her parents that had booked them the first class tickets to the luxury hotel in which they had stayed a fortnight in. Going there went smoothly enough but it was coming back that was the problem. Their flight was delayed by three long hours and when they finally landed they had to spend what seemed like never ending hours in immigration, and then they had to wait even longer for a taxi, in the rain.
Draco hadn't exactly made things easy for her. It was his first experience of muggle travel and it was an understatement to say that his curiosity had been his downfall. She had mentally made a silent vow to herself that she would never again go flying with Draco Malfoy, regardless of how much she loved him.
"You seem happy to be home!" he said as he sat down next to her holding an identical cup of hot chocolate his hands.
Hermione nodded as she snuggled closer to him.
"Yeah, I'm enjoying the last few moments of serene bliss. Any minuet now I'm going to have to get up and start unpacking, and then put the first load of washing on, and then owl and call everyone to let them know we've arrived safely, and then..."
"And then you're going to be admitted to St Mungo's for collapsing from exhaustion!" chuckled Draco as he stroked his wife's hair. "You are not going to do anything! We've just come back from our honeymoon and if you're anywhere near as tired as I am you'll be just about ready to curl up in bed and fall asleep for a few hours!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at his casual attitude.
"Draco, things have to be done! If I leave it till tomorrow I'll only be indulging my lazy side, even more than I already have over the past two weeks! Look, it will only take a few hours and once I'm done I'll be able to curl up in our bed and fall fast asleep with a clear conscience, I promise."
Draco frowned slightly but said nothing. He'd already decided that there was no point in arguing because he wasn't going to be listened to. This was exactly what had happened in the lead up to their wedding a fortnight ago. Hermione had tried to cram as much as she could into a twenty four hour day, and it always ended up in her being absolutely shattered come ten o'clock.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, both enjoying the sensation of not having to say anything at all. This was what married life was about, Draco thought to himself; just feeling comfortable in your spouses company without having to speak or be spoken to. It was all going well until...
POP!
"Father?!"
"What on earth...?"
"Uh, hello!"
The arrival of Lucius Malfoy shocked the newly weds into jumping off the sofa and spilling their hot chocolate all over the carpet. Hermione glared at Draco pointedly before pulling out her wand to clean the mess up. Before they had left for their honeymoon she had specifically asked him to install an anti apparation charm so that no one could apparate in and out of the house apart from them. He had insisted that he'd done it, but this clearly was not the case. Draco avoided the cold gaze of her eyes just as a child that had done something wrong would avoid the gaze of their mother, and stared at his father who was eyeing the television sceptically.
"Father, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Your mother has requested that the two of you come round after dinner to open your wedding presents. You forgot when you left for your honeymoon and they have been collecting dust in one of our spare rooms ever since."
Draco glanced at Hermione who looked irritated.
"We appreciate you looking after them for us Lucius, really, but we are really very tired and we have so much to do isn't that right Draco?"
Draco nodded in agreement, even though the idea of unwrapping hundreds of presents did sound appealing. Their wedding had been a grand even, with hundreds of people attending. Everyone had brought a gift, whether it was an actual object, or in the form of money. He suddenly felt a profound sensation of desire and greed sweep over him at the thought, just like a small child at Christmas.
Lucius sighed and put on a sterner face on.
"I do appreciate that but, truth be told, Narcissa is driving me to an early grave with her rants on the house elves not being able to clean there until all of the items have been cleared! Please, for my sake, can you just come to retrieve the bloody items?"
Draco looked at Hermione who looked at him. They could both hear the desperation in his voice even though his face wouldn't give any emotion away. Hermione rolled her eyes and decided against her rant about the way the Malfoy's treated their house elves, although they had improved since she'd gotten engaged to Draco. She gave an irritated sigh. It would seem that her in laws had made other plans for the two of them, and she was not going to be able to get out of them.
"Fine we'll come! But we will be back home by midnight!"
~*~
"...And this is from the Newport-Blakes in Russia. They're business associates of your fathers, such nice people!" said Narcissa as she handed her new daughter in law yet another present. "Although when we went to their house for dinner one evening I couldn't help but notice that their china seemed a bit dirty." Hermione took it from her and opened it half-heartedly. They had been in the Malfoy's spare room for over two hours and the pile of presents didn't seem to be getting any smaller. It had just gone eleven and the new Mr and Mrs Malfoy were on the verge of collapsing.
"Well would you look at that Draco, another potion-stirring spoon!" Draco didn't even give it a second glance as he threw it into the pile with all of the others. Sensing the mood Narcissa made a hasty excuse to get her and Lucius out of the room, leaving Draco and Hermione alone.
"When can we go home Hermione, I'm bloody exhausted!" whined Draco as he buried his head in his hands. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Just as soon as we finish opening all of the presents Draco," she replied, frowning slightly at his choice of language. "I never knew so may people came to our wedding! We must send them thank you cards."
Draco rolled his eyes at his wife and she hit him playfully on the arm. He laughed and pulled his arm around her shoulders so that she could rest her heavy head on his chest.
"I wish we were at home," Hermione mumbled. "We haven't had a chance to christen our new bed yet!"
Draco smirked. It had taken him a while, but he'd finally managed to melt Hermione's prim-and-proper attitude, just as she'd managed to melt his cool exterior.
"Well I guess we'll just have to do it tomorrow, unless..."
"Unless what?" she asked, lifting her head slightly so that she could look at him.
"Unless we just sneak out!"
Hermione's jaw dropped.
"You want to sneak out of your parent's house so we can go home and...Christen our new bed? Draco how very Slytherin of you!"
Draco smirked again and leaned in towards her lips.
"Don't act like you weren't thinking the same thing! After all, it was your idea in the first place!"
Hermione said nothing as she lifted her head up slightly and felt the familiar sensation of meeting her lips with Draco's. She didn't care that anyone could walk in and see them, she didn't even care that she happened to be in her in laws house! As far as she was concerned, she and Draco were a newly married couple, and kissing whenever they felt like it was their own right...
10 minuets later...
"Oh look Lucius, they're sleeping! Aw, it's so adorable! The two of them suit so well, didn't I tell you Lucius? I said it as soon as Draco brought her home for the first time! I knew they'd be perfect of each other! Oh how precious!"
"Narcissa will you be quiet, you'll wake them up with your pointless waffle! Now, conjure up a blanket and leave them to sleep, we'll sort this mess out in the morning," barked Lucius, gesturing to the piles of wrapping paper, presents and unopened presents.
"Ok," said Narcissa as she flicked her wand and made a beautiful blanket appear out of thin air. She then wrapped it around her son and daughter in law, and walked over to the door where Lucius stood. He'd already turned out the lights and was waiting patiently for his wife. Before they left Narcissa smiled at her husband.
"It's just like when we were their age, isn't it?"
Lucius rolled his eyes but nodded all the same.
"Yes, it is."
A/N: Hey, hope you liked it! Please review and let me know what you think!