Memories That Remain
By Gypsy Esmerelda
Rating PG
"Hermione! Oh thank goodness you're here."
Ginny Potter pulled the older girl into the room hurriedly and handed her a green eyed, red haired baby girl. "Here, take Molly. I think James is asleep. Harry will be home any minute and he wants me to be ready." She disappeared into the bedroom.
Hermione sat down on the couch with Molly, Ginny and Harry's six-month-old baby girl and looked at her nervously. She'd not had much practice looking after babies, especially ones she'd never even seen before. She'd only just got used to Ron's triplets and they were four years old now. Ginny popped her head back round the door.
"Oh and by the way, Hermione. Thank you for doing this for Harry and me. I know it's your first night back and you probably wanted to catch up with everything but this party is really important to Harry. He's awfully nervous about Gringotts being taken over by the Ministry and he wants to impress the bosses. You know I wouldn't usually ask you at such short notice but with it being the Ministry, Mum and Dad can't baby-sit and Ron and Lisa are on holiday, they only get back tonight at some ungodly hour."
Hermione smiled. Ginny hadn't changed, not even now she was married with children, she was still a worrier.
"Ginny, relax. It's fine, I hadn't got anything planned. Like you said, Ron's away and besides he'd only fuss over me. I'm probably better off with time to think and be by myself."
Ginny went over and took Molly from Hermione and placed her in her crib, then sat down by Hermione, taking her hand.
"Oh Hermione, we're all so sorry to hear about Draco. If there's anything at all we can do to help you through this terrible time."
Hermione smiled at her, trying to hold back her tears.
"Thank you Ginny. Just knowing I have my friends around me again is enough for now. I just need to recover in my own time."
Ginny nodded and gently brushed Hermione's hair back from her face then gasped softly when she saw the scar on her neck.
"Is that where he………?"
Hermione nodded.
"Yes that's where he cursed me," she said, brushing her hair back over the mark. She looked up at Ginny and smiled reassuringly. "It's okay, you go and get ready, I'll get to know my two new godchildren."
Ginny nodded and patted her shoulder gently and then fled into the bedroom to get changed. Hermione sat quietly, just letting her thoughts wander. It was five years since she had left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, four years since she had started to date Draco Malfoy, one of her bitterest enemies at school yet such a gentle lover and devoted husband. It was three years since she had married him and moved away from her childhood friends, choosing instead to live in France with Draco and it was two years since she had discovered she was expecting their first child, a little girl. Draco was delighted, his father however, was not.
"A child, Draco! A FEMALE child! I always had such high hopes for you my boy. I could even forgive you for marrying a mudblooded inferior like her but a FEMALE offspring. No, this just won't do. She must get rid of it!"
Lucius Malfoy stalked up and down in front of the fireplace, angrier than Draco had ever seen him before. He knew he wasn't going to be happy about the child but he also knew that his last demand was never going to be agreed to.
"She will not get rid of her, Father. That 'it' you refer to is my daughter, my beautiful innocent baby girl. I'm not telling Hermione to terminate her pregnancy just because of your foolish pride. It's about time there were some changes in the Malfoy family and the first girl descendant will be one of them. And that is final."
Lucius glared at his son, his eyes glowing almost red with anger and hatred.
" I shall do it myself then." He turned on his heel and walked into the bedroom where Hermione was cowering behind the bed. "Stand up, girl."
Draco followed him in and stood next to Hermione.
"Leave my wife alone, and get out of our house."
Lucius laughed softly and took out his wand, pointing it at Hermione.
"I told you I would do this myself, Draco."
He spoke the curse softly, almost as if it were an ode to love, not a curse of death and destruction. Hermione watched him, seeing it all happen in slow motion. Draco pulled out his own wand and with a cry, he leapt in front of her to protect her, issuing the killing curse at his father at the same time Lucius' curse, meant for Hermione, hit Draco square in the chest and he fell to the floor by her feet. Lucius gave a strangled cry as Draco's curse hit him and as he fell to the floor, he sent another curse heading Hermione's way but Hermione was already dropping to her knees to her dying husband. The curse hit her in the neck and she fell unconscious to the floor.
When she had regained consciousness, she was in the hospital. She had been unconscious for over a year. A nurse had broken the news to her. Lucius may have been dead but he had won in the end. Draco was dead and their unborn baby was lost, she had nothing, not even a part of Draco to take with her. The Malfoy line had ended with Draco's death at the hands of his father, something she would never be able to come to terms with. Yet she suddenly found herself needing someone else. Someone she had loved a long time before and deep down in her heart, she still loved. As soon as she was able, she'd packed her bags and left France, never to return again and headed back home. Home to the person she needed most of all, hoping he would forgive her for ever leaving and starting a new life with Draco, without him, in Paris, France. The one place where it had all started, the one place they had been truly happy.