Hello one and all. I know that I've been MIA - and I'm sure you know that if you're on my Alerts list...if there's anyone left. I should explain: I've had a really, really bad couple of years. The fics I've had posted (and that are still up) aren't as good as I had hoped. This is a new thing for me, though I do love Dramione fics(x So, this takes place with the next generation, but in an AU world. Won't say more, just enjoy.
PS | Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, and any of the characters you recognize belong to JK Rowling. However, Cass, Anastasia, Kay, Jenna, Becca, and all the ones you don't recognize belong to moi.
"Mum!" The crowd parted, and Cassiopeia Malfoy found her mother. Her silvery-gray eyes were bright with excitement. Her bone strait hair was pulled into a high pony-tail, and the brown seemed golden blonde in the late-afternoon sunlight.
"Cass darling!" Hermione Malfoy cried as her eleven-year-old daughter ran into her arms. "How are you! How has your year been?"
"Mum you're strangling me!" Cass's voice was muffled, lost in her mother's robes.
Hermione straitened, releasing her daughter. Cassie was clutching the small leather rucksack (of which her father had insisted she have) and her black trunk lay on its side a foot behind her. The muggle-looking monorail was still releasing students, and there was chaos and noise everywhere.
Hermione pointed her wand at the trunk, held up her little bag (which had once been decorated with beads, but had been transfigured to a silk coin purse) and watched with satisfaction as it flew into the mouth of the bag. Together, they walked hand-in-hand to the escalators, out of the station, and to their little minivan.
As Hermione pulled out of the parking lot, Cass began talking. "So, I've had the best half of a year so far! Jen invited me over to her house for the new year, and she also invited over Kay and Becca! Can I please go?"
Her mother smiled. "We'll see what your father says."
"Oh! I wanted to ask you about that! How did you guys meet, mum? And how did we get over to America when we all obviously come from Brittan? I mean, that's what Jen says. That we're all famous is Europe and that you moved here."
"I see. And what else did this Jen girl tell you?"
"Oh she said the most ridiculous thing ever! She said that everyone knew that you hated my father, and that you and him didn't actually fall in love, but he raped you and forced you to marry him and you were so ashamed you fled the continent and came to America."
Hermione's hands turned white as her grip tightened on the steering wheel. "What's Jen's full name, darling?"
"Jennifer Malone, and my other friends are Katia Mercer and Rebecca Johnson - and they both agreed that you were famous and so was Dad but Dad was a bad guy and everyone hated him. Is that true? Am I a bastard child?"
Hermione stared intently at the road. They were nearing their property as she finally began to speak again. "Honey, we're going to talk about this when your father gets home. Know this: your father and I had a rough time when we were children. There was a lot of conflict because of blood status at school, but we love each other very much and that is not going to change any time soon."
Cass frowned, but nodded. As soon as her mother stopped the car (about 50 yards from the front door of their country manor) she jumped out, running into the house. Hermione, on the other hand, sat frozen in the still-running car. What she had hoped against - prayed against so much it was not even funny - was that her daughter need not know the nature of her and her husband's past. As soon as things had calmed down enough, she had moved her family to the other side of the world, to Rosemont, Pennsylvania. Her daughter was taken off of the list for Hogwarts as soon as they had moved, and she was enrolled instead in the Salem Institution for Bright Young Witches and Wizards, not far away in the state of Massachusetts. She should have expected that her daughter would learn her past from other students, but it had been enough to hope, had it not? Of course not.
It was long past dark when the tall, blonde man appeared with a CRACK in the middle of the living room. The first thing Draco Malfoy saw was his wife sitting on one of their lush couches, staring at the Philadelphia Herald for the Magically Able - otherwise known as the Herald - with a worried look on her face. He dropped his bag on the floor and strode over to Hermione, snatching the paper away and throwing it onto the floor. He knew that something was wrong when she made no move to protest, or at the very least pick the newspaper back up.
Draco felt a thin layer of panic settle upon him. "Hermione - Hermione please, is something wrong? Is it Cassiopeia?"
Hermione blinked, and her brown eyes coming into focus. "Malone, Mercer, and Johnson. Are those surnames that you recognize?" Draco blinked, taken aback by the question. "Answer me!"
"I know that they all have children around our daughter's age." Draco frowned, a crease appearing in between his pale eyebrows. "Joseph Malone married Sylvia Ray, whose brother is the President of the Magic Association. The Mercers are fairly prominent in the American pureblood society, and the Johnsons take up three seats on the Council of Magic, even though they're mostly half-bloods. Now please tell me what this is about."
Hermione lowered her voice. "Apparently, Cass's new friends are of those families, and they recognized the name Malfoy."
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Why is this a bad thing, dear?"
Hermione's voice came out in a near-silent hiss. "It's bad because apparently their parents told them rumors - or they found out, I don't know - about the two of us. They conveyed the little they knew to Cass! The rumors about you raping and then forcing matrimony upon me!" Before her husband could say anything, Hermione paled. "What if she found out about Anastasia?"
He sat down beside her. "If she found out, she found out. There isn't anything more to think about than that."
"It's her older sister, Draco. What if she wants to meet her? What if she wants to meet Ron?"
The blonde's expression hardened. "She won't want to meet him. He was a monster and monsters never change. If Cass so wishes to meet with Anastasia, you can write to Ronald and make arrangements. I have no issues with her staying in this house - I would have no issues if you wished to get custody of her and have her live here, as you full well know. However, under no circumstances will Ronald Weasley enter my home."
Hermione looked ready to respond - to protest - when their eleven-year-old daughter came flying down the stairs and crashed into her father. "Dad! Oh I've missed you so!"
Draco smiled and detached his daughter from his side. "Come, I'm sure Gemmy has dinner all prepared. I want you to tell me all about your new school."
Ten minutes later, they all sat in the cozy dining room with dinner. "So, when we get to school we all get these circular crystals, and they're all clear. We have to point our wands at them and say 'Tempus est mihi esse electum. Pone me simul' Then the stone turns color and they seat us at the table with all the others of the same colored stone! It's wonderful! There are four colors it might turn: a milky white, jade green, aquamarine, and saffronish orange. They stand for air, earth, water and fire - or else Aeris, Terra, Lympha, and Ignis."
"And where were you put?" Hermione asked delicately.
"I'm a Terra! We're apparently the strongest willed, and the most motivated to do. We will get something done no matter what, and stay strong and steady through any situation."
Draco looked over at his daughter, interest appearing on his face. "What are the traits of the others?"
"Well, the Aeris are very open. They will accept anything and go where the wind blows them, so to speak. They aren't the most motivated, and do what must be done if they can, but if they can't it's just like no big deal to them. The Lympha can adapt to any situation and get through it intact. Ignis will blast everything to bits to get what is desired."
"And are Jen and Kay and Bec all Terras as well?" Hermione asked.
"Well of course! We're roommates too! There's another girl - her name's Marissa - but we don't talk to her because she's really rude and according to a few of the guys she's also a whore."
Hermione frowned; an eleven year old? That couldn't be right.
"Anyways, Jen's like super wealthy! At the Pecunia, they have a vault in the lowest levels! It's amazing and their home is huge! She said if you wanted her parents are having a party New Year's Eve and you could come. It's like formal."
"What of the other girls you mentioned?" Hermione's shock at the invitation was very clearly unnoticed by Cass.
"Well, Kay - Katia - her mom is a pureblood from Russia. She's really awesome, Kay. Her birthday is the day after mine! It's so soon! And then Rebecca...well, in reality no one knows that much about her except that her mom's family line traces to England a few years ago, and she lives with her Aunt Grace."
Draco gave his daughter a blank-like stare. "Any males in your Year you'd care to speak of?"
Cass frowned slightly. "Well, Billius, Alexander, Beck, Joseph and Danny are all in Terra as well, but they don't seem to like us or anyone else. I dunno - it's like they like to live in another world or something. We try and be nice, but they just don't want anything to do with us."
"Any names I would recognize?" Draco asked.
"Not really...three of them are muggle-born, a pair are twins that are half-blooded, and then Danny Saars is just...I dunno. A Saars."
"I know of him - very old, prominent family with a pretty good, clean record. Now, aside from the friends you've made, how are your classes? Your teachers?"
"Well, my classes are the best! Our History of Magic teacher is the most amazing in the world! The subject would be so boring, but he teaches it by giving us plays and scripts that we memorize and perform! And if he doesn't use that method, then he Transfigures various things into the things we're studying, and it works that way! I'm really good at Charms and Transfiguration, but I don't like Defense Studies that much...the class is dreadfully dull! I just want to learn the spells. I couldn't care less about any of the reasons behind them. We don't get to use spells until we're Second Years."
Draco and Hermione smiled at each other; their daughter was the perfect culmination of them both.
So, just for a quick for-the-record thing, all of the children except for three still exist from the epilogue: Scorpius, Rose, and Hugo. In lieu of them are Cass (who is in the same Year as Albus Severus and where Rose would be), and Anastasia (who is, at this point, a Fifth Year). Hope you all enjoyed, Ayla.