A/N: All characters (except Caroline) belong to JKR.

Chapter 1

The curly blond-haired girl skipped gleefully up and the down the aisles in the bookstore. She was playing hide-and-seek with her mother. Well, she was playing hide-and-seek. Her mother, on the other hand, was searching frantically for her daughter in the large bookstore.

"Caroline, where are you? Young lady, come back here this instant!" called her mother. Caroline had a habit of wandering off while shopping with her mum.

The four-year-old skipped around the corner and looked up to find a tall man looking at the vast amount of titles in the business section. He wore a gray business suit with a green striped tie. He looked very serious with his arms folded across his chest.

Caroline slowly walked up to the man and stood silently beside him folding her arms across her chest. The man then unfolded his arms and put his hands on his hips, still oblivious to the little girl beside him. She then unfolded her arms and put her hands on her hips, mimicking the man.

"Caroline!" the voice was becoming more urgent and a little closer.

The man picked up a book on the top shelf and started leafing through it. Caroline picked up a book on one of the lower shelves and did the same. She looked up at the man, craning her neck because he was so tall.

"Here, this looks like a good one," she said as she reached up offering the book to him.

For the first time the man glanced down at the little girl. He thought maybe she might be four or five-years-old. Or maybe younger…she did look rather small. He noticed her curly white-blond hair with a big pink bow on the side. She wore a pink and purple tee shirt and denim shorts.

"What makes you think that's a good one?"

"Because of the cover, silly. It's got a picture of a pretty lady with a nice smile." Her voice was tiny but strong, and had kind of a sing-song quality to it.

"Don't you know you can't judge a book by its cover?" He couldn't believe he was actually having a conversation with the little girl. He normally shied away from children, thinking they were loud, whiny and generally annoying. But there was something different about her. She seemed wise beyond her age.

"Well, I think she looks nice, and you're nice, so I think you'd like this book."

"How do you know I'm nice? What if I'm a mean person?"

She thought for a moment. "Because if you drink a lot of milk your hair turns white. You must drink a lot of milk like me 'cuz I have white hair too. Since I'm a nice person, that means you've got to be a nice person too." She always had trouble pronouncing her 'R's' – they came out sounding more like soft 'W's.'

He wasn't sure if he was following her logic, but she was amusing him so he continued, "What if I told you I was a mean person, and I ate little girls with curly white hair for breakfast?"

She giggled and grinned up at him. "Then I'd think you're full of bullshit. Uh, oh." He raised his eyebrows and looked at her in surprise not believing a curse word came out of that innocent little mouth. She looked down at her little pink purse and took a small coin pouch from it. She took out a coin and handed it to the man.

"What's this for?"

"My mum said I have to pay a pound every time I say a curse word." Her blue-gray eyes lowered, ashamed of what she said.

"Well, if I had to pay a pound every time I said a curse word, I'd be the poorest man in London." He smiled down at her, or was it a smirk?

She started to giggle again. He bent down on one knee so he could be closer to her. He took the coin and flipped in the air a couple of times. She looked in wonder as he tossed the coin from one hand to the other. All of a sudden, the coin seemed to disappear as he opened his hands for her to see.

Caroline gasped in awe. With a slight of hand, the man reached behind her ear and pulled out the coin. She started to giggle again.

"Are you a witch?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"No, I'm not a witch," he chuckled as he stood up.

"You just did magic, and my mum used to do magic too. She was a real witch!" She kept her voice low.

"Is that so? Tell me more."

"She was the most powerfulest witch in the world. A long time ago, she and her friends kicked Moldywort's arse. Oops." She took another coin from her purse and handed it to him.

Moldywort? Did she mean Voldemort? No, it couldn't be, could it?

At that moment Caroline's mother came around the corner looking down at her daughter. "Caroline, what I have told you about running away from me in big stores?" She saw two long legs in gray wool trousers standing there and started apologizing. "I'm so sorry sir; I hope my daughter hasn't been both…" Grabbing Caroline's hand, she looked up at the man. Her brown eyes were wide with fear. The blood ran out of her face.

"Malfoy?"

"Granger?"

"Come on, Caroline. Let's go to the park." Hermione grabbed the little girl's arm and started leading her away. Quickly.

"But Mummy, I was just talking to the nice man."

Draco just stood there in disbelief. He was starting at the white-haired girl. "Wait… Granger." He started following them at a quick pace.

There was a community park across the street from the bookstore. Even though it was nice sunny day, the park was not that crowded. When they reached the playground area, Hermione picked Caroline up and sat her down on one of the swings. "You stay here where I can see you!" Her voice was angry, and it was scaring Caroline a little.

Hermione rounded on her heel and was face to face with Draco. He grabbed her arm and led her to a nearby bench.

In an angry hushed tone, Hermione said, "Don't you EVER come near or speak to my daughter again!" She shoved him hard in the chest. He grabbed her wrists so she wouldn't attack him again. There was a fierce look in her eyes, like a lioness protecting her cub. "Just forget you ever saw us."

"Not likely, Granger. It looks like you owe me an explanation." With a small shove, he let go of her wrists and put his hands on his hips, staring at her with an icy glare.

"I owe you nothing! This doesn't concern you."

"The hell it doesn't. I think this very much concerns me," Draco hissed. "You'd have to be blind not to notice the resemblance." He sat down on the bench. "She's the spitting image of me.

"Although to be truthful, I don't recall having sex with you…not that I didn't want to…unless I was drunk and just don't remember..." He smirked at her. How she hated that smirk. She felt like slapping it off his face.

"Don't flatter yourself, Malfoy. My mud blood didn't dirty your sheets." She plopped down on the bench beside him.

"Well then who else has white blond hair and gray eyes, other than my fath…?"

"Bingo. Give the man a cigar," she said sarcastically.

His mouth hung open. "But how? When?"

She motioned him to lower his voice. "Since you slept with most of the girls in Hogwarts, I think you of all people know how," she whispered. "The when was the time we were held hostage, and I was tortured by Bellatrix. While I was held prisoner in your dungeons, your Dear Old Dad paid me a visit. He took me to a separate room, and he…" Her eyes were filling up with tears. She closed her eyes and shook her head, not wanting to relive the memory.

Flashback:

She was taken from her cell by two Death Eaters and shoved into a smaller room. The only furniture in the room was a table and two chairs. It looked like an interrogation room at a police station.

He was waiting for her.

"Ah, welcome to my party, you little mudblood bitch." He took off his cloak and draped it across one of the chairs. He started taking off his gloves one finger at a time.

Hermione just stood in the middle of room too panicked to look at him. She had heard the rumors about Lucius, and at this moment she'd rather be cruciated by Bellatrix than to stand in the same room with him.

Lucius took his wand from the top of his cane and made her clothes disappear except her bra and knickers. He circled her never taking his eyes off her body. He flipped her hair off her shoulder with end his cane. He ran the snake's head end of his cane up and down her arm, and then lifted her chin with it. She shut her eyes and willed this to be a bad dream...

Draco looked at her in disbelief. He put his palms against his eyes and dragged them down his face. All of a sudden he looked very tired. "

That son of a bitch!" He slammed his fist against the seat of the bench. He couldn't put into words the rage he felt inside. Lucius had done some terrible things like torturing and killing, so he shouldn't be too surprised that his father was a rapist, too. But it made him sick just the same.

He reached out to touch her, comfort her, but she scooted farther away from him. "Don't you dare touch me, Ferret." Her voice was trembling.

She put her hands over her face and shook her head. "I can't believe this nightmare is happening. Caroline and I just moved back here and of all people we had to run into, it had to be a Malfoy."

She looked up at him with daggers in her chocolate brown eyes. "I will kill you if you breathe a word of this to your father. That monster will never set eyes on my daughter."

Draco just shook his head. "He'll never know. I assure you…I promise you." Didn't she know? It made big headlines in The Daily Prophet.

"You can't promise that he'll never find out. You of all people know what your father is capable of."

"He'll never know… he died six months ago in Azkaban. Don't you read the papers?"

She stared at him. "I've been out of the country for the past few years. This better not be a joke, because I'm dead serious."

"Well, Lucius is dead…dead."

Hermione let the information sink in. The late August breeze flowed through her soft curly hair. She glanced toward the swings and saw Caroline galloping in their direction, her white blond hair bouncing in the breeze. Hermione looked back up at Draco, her eyes a little softer this time. "Caroline is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't imagine my life without her."

Draco nodded and gave her another one of his infamous smirks. "Well, she certainly impressed the shit out of me."

Closer now, Caroline stomped toward them with a determined look on her face. She reached up to Draco with her palm up. "I heard you say a curse word. I want my money back."