A/N: Thank you so much for the favorites, follows—but especially for the reviews. It means more than I can say.

Once again, I own nothing, but enjoy the grey areas of character development in the JKR's beautiful world.

Chapter Two

"Smells good in here."

"Just finished searing meat and sautéing onions and garlic for pot roast with carrots and potatoes." Draco set the seared meat to the in the deep cast iron pan before looking up and inclining his head to the two kitchen chairs he'd already pulled out in anticipation for the pregnant ginger witch.

"Thanks!" Ginny released a sigh as she sank into the first chair and propped her feet up on the second. "I may hate this phase more than morning sickness…"

"Well, I would think anything would be better than constant nausea and vomiting…"

"Mmm…Is there anything I can do to help?" she offered, even as she sank further into her seat.

Draco chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "No, this all cooks in one pot together, just need to add the carrots and potatoes after this meat cooks in the oven for a little bit, and I thought I'd toss together a green salad before we sit down—have you still been drinking sparkling water and ginger ale?"

"No. Makes me feel too bloated without eating anything. And this sounds like a meal Hermione will approve of—apparently, I wasn't varying my diet enough first and second trimester..."

Draco snorted, turning quickly and flicking his wand to portion out the needed amounts of red wine and beef broth before Ginny could catch the affectionate softening in his posture. "Well, there will be Iron and Vitamin B12 from the roast and Vitamin A from the carrots." He carefully poured the broth and wine over the roast and brought the pot to a light simmer with another flick of his wand. "You'll get Potassium and Vitamin C from the potatoes and good Folic Acid for baby James from the green salad, assuming you eat everything on your plate."

He placed the lid over the pot, floated it from the stove top into the preheated oven and sauntered towards the kitchen table.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Show off," she muttered as Draco sat across from her. "I'm assuming all those horrid sounding things are good for me, but since when do you talk like that? It's usually just Hermione nattering on in all those disgusting sounding words…"

"Muggle science textbooks," Draco shrugged nonchalantly. "The Healer who accepted my experimental potions proposal at St. Mungo's seems very knowledgeable in Muggle biology, chemistry and biochemistry, and it seemed a good idea to study the subjects for myself. We haven't done anything with it potion wise, but it's been interesting at least."

"Hmm…Hermione's taken on more research this year—who'd you say you're working with?"

"Don't think I have," he smirked. "Healer Jean contacted me about my proposal sometime in February. Don't know if you'd call it 'working together' in the traditional sense, we actually do our experiments separately and I've never actually met her…But we have common interests and ideas for trial potion combinations or improvements.

The witch canted her head. "Why St. Mungo's, though? Wouldn't it be more lucrative to pursue this in the private sector with potion masters, shops or companies?"

"Yes," Draco's lips settled into a thin line. "It seems, however, everywhere I applied or made inquiries at were all either unavailable or had a long and expensive application process that lead to nothing but wasted time and money…

"Draco…"

"There were a couple of promised interviews, followed by letters they never answered. Hardly doubt Hermes lost all those letters..."

Ginny's keen eyes narrowed and flashed. "D'you think it's because..."

Draco raked a hand through his pale locks quickly and then again slowly, pulling at the roots. "I don't know what else it could be... St. Mungo's was really a last resort, because I felt surely a hospital would be interested in potions to further the healing process. Even then, it was seven months before I heard that someone had read it and was interested…"

Ginny nodded, lightly rubbing her swollen abdomen. "Well, tell me about this proposal then...You're obviously still filling orders for Madam Pomphrey and I'm assuming still filling potion orders for St. Mungo's...?"

"Yes, to both." Draco leaned back in his chair, resting his hands in his lap. "Business has kept study this year, especially this summer to have fall bulk orders ready for Hogwarts. With the experimental potions, I've been rethinking my ordering and storage system and have been perfecting that all summer, too."

"That doesn't answer my question—it only explains why you've become even more reclusive this year..."

"Patience, witch," Draco rolled his eyes then winked affectionately. "I think there is a lot of untapped potential in potions. It takes time and discipline to even brew basics for a simple stock pile at home, and your average witch or wizard probably has bad memories of the class from school. It's also quite terrifying to test your own brew if you're not entirely confident what the final outcome should be—and potion instructions can often be vague and confusing.

"My proposal's main focus was on experimenting with practical and useful combinations of potions that could be marketed to St. Mungo's and the infirmary at Hogwarts, but Healer Jean has broadened the scope and range for this, and it could have more of an immediate impact than I'd honestly imagined."

Ginny wiggled and twisted in her chair, attempting to lean forward, gesturing for him to continue.

"So, the process is that we agree on a combination or entirely new counter-potion, and I brew it first, taking clear and through notes and documenting every process—so far I've been able to voluntarily test everything on myself, my mother, Aunt Andromeda, Theo and even Blaise once when he visited from Italy. I send Healer Jean my potion and final draft of ingredients, instructions and notes and she tries to reproduce it, making her own notes of my directions. She apparently has a set group of eager trainees St. Mungo's compensates for testing these potions, and there have even been a few patients some potions would be appropriate to prescribe to, and they accepted when offered, understanding it was still experimental."

"And they worked?"

"Every time." The broadening smile across his face betrayed the casualness of his voice...

Ginny stared at him long and hard, something mischievous flashing in her eyes. "You know...it sounds like your work has potential for huge impact. You could standardise instructions in textbooks, add to the curriculum taught at Hogwarts...maybe even increase general base knowledge and ease with home brews..."

Draco threw back his head and laughed and laughed, grasping his sides. "Healer Jean natters on about all that constantly—has Granger been talking about her?"

"Afraid not, Malfoy." The gleam in her eyes suddenly faded and her smile fell. "I was concerned that you've been purposefully avoiding the outside world for personal reasons…"

A chill washed over Draco as Ginny paused…

"But it just sounds like your isolation has been work related, which can be temporary, so I won't push the issue...I do hope, though, the addition of two women to your home won't be too much of a shock."

"Slytherin, Ginny, we adapt for the sake of self-preservation." He trailed off, rubbing his chin, desperate to change the subject. "I've been wondering how it is you agreed to this plan. Both you and Harry coming to me with it. It just...it doesn't feel like something you'd give in to."

The witch across the table grinned ruefully. "I am the mastermind behind this temporary protective custody scheme, Malfoy, and I fought Mum pretty hard on it, too."

"But why? You starting received the threatening letters in May, and there were other coincidental threats before last week at the joke shop—why now, why this?"

Ginny opened her mouth, only to snap it shut, and began to gesticulate wildly. "Draco! C'mere, now!"

Draco's chair skidded across the floor. Ginny grabbed at his hands and firmly laid them atop her pregnant abdomen. Draco tried to wrench himself from her grasp, and then...

Stopped.

Something small bulged out from within, forming a tiny peak under his palm.

He gazed transfixed as that tiny peak shifted and migrated across the width of the witch's protruding stomach.

"This is why, Draco." She covered his hand with hers, following the moving appendage across. "Courage works best when it walks in tandem with wisdom. It'd be foolish of me to not do all I can to protect James Sirius, seeing as he certainly can't do anything for himself. Harry needed to follow the lead himself, because that's who he is and I need to keep our child safe. And outside of select few of my relatives, I don't think there is anyone that Harry trusts more to do his absolute best, and actually get it right." She winked, one corner of her lips pulling upwards. "For all this talk, though, you know I'll complain every-so often and need a supervised outing every once in a while..."

The motion within had calmed, then ceased. Draco withdrew his hand, smiling. "Deal."

Ginny's smile faded into a concentrated look of determination. She shuffled and angled before bracing and finally hefting herself up from the chairs. "We're really very grateful to you, Draco." She squeezed his arm familiarly.

"Anything for my godson..."

Ginny only rolled her eyes. "Where's Pleiades? I was looking for her earlier."

"Oh, she's been down in the lab with me, but I think she ran off to my room when I came upstairs."

"Mmm..." Ginny waddled and padded slowly towards the hallway. "I think I'll have a kip before supper. Hermione should be back soon, just a head's up."

Draco grunted, waving the chairs to their rightful positions and started back down to his lab for a bit more work before the root vegetables needed to be added.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Does this sweet girl belong to you, Malfoy?"

Draco glanced up from the pot roast, pulling the bowl of root vegetables back from the pan. Hermione had loosed her hair, so that her chestnut curls tumbled around her shoulders, prettily framing her face. She'd exchanged the work attire and obnoxious green robes for a fetching pair of Muggle denims, a simple shirt, and grey socks. A short-hair, cream-colored cat with gleaming orange eyes wove between the witch's legs, affectionately brushing and pressing against the denim clad legs...

Mentally shaking himself, Draco returned his attention to the task of adding the prepped vegetables to the dish. "Granger, meet Pleiades. Pleiades, this is Granger."

"One of seven?"

"Actually, one of five, but I figure a mother and a father cat, plus five kittens…" The vegetables successfully added, lid restored pan returned to the oven, Draco now had no choice but to brace himself and face the witch. His breath caught as he took her in again. "And...Pleiades is my mother's favorite constellation."

Hermione stooped down, softly petting the feline, whose bright eyes immediately fell closed and he caught satisfied purrs from his pet…Lucky little traitor.

"Malfoy, I'm not entirely sure what happened this morning, but do you think we could start over?" Hermione looked back up, eyes full and vulnerable. "There's really no way of knowing how long we'll be invading your home, and I'd rather us not be avoiding each other the entire time."

Draco released a long puff of air. "You didn't do anything," Draco answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I let Weasley get to me and took it out on you…there was no reason for my harsh words."

Hermione nodded, rising slowly to her full, but slight, height. "It's just…Ginny's the sister I never had, and until the attacker or attackers are arrested, she's my priority. I've adjusted my work hours and patient load even more so, and arranged it with my supervisor that I can do as much research and revisions from here as necessary…And it's…it's important to me that you trust me." She swallowed and clasped her hands together. "I want you to believe that I would never compromise her or this home, of which I am only a guest, with…ah… questionable or compromising activities…."

Draco drew a sharp breath and held it—not realising he hadn't responded until Hermione began shifting on her feet, twiddling her thumbs and worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. "Oh, sorry!" he gasped. "I believe you, Granger, I do. And I apologise for my unfounded accusations this morning."

She inclined her head, brown eyes studying and piercing—offering a slight nod before turning and walking back up the hall…

Draco froze…

Then lunged.

"Granger!"

There was a soft glow about her and he paused a heartbeat more, gathering his nerve. He stepped out and took hold of her wrists, cradling them as if they were the finest of his mother's fine bone china tea sets. "Look, I have a lot of apologizing to do from our past, and there's no possible way a single and simple 'I'm sorry' can cover it all right here and now, but please know that I am, and hope you'll allow me the opportunity to apologise as things come up while you're here. And maybe…maybe we could start to become friends…"

His breath seized a pregnant moment while her face remained still and she looked down where he held her wrists...

And then, she looked up! A genuine smile slowly spread across her face and he decided that he could be content to get lost in swirling shades of amber, gold and brown of her eyes…

Warm, soft fingers wrapped around his wrists in return and squeezed. "I'm Hermione. I adore cats. I can't cook, and I think that may the most scrumptious pot roast I've ever smelled."

A satisfied purr vibrated and thrummed throughout his being. "I'm Draco. I've an affinity for constellation names, I'm brilliant in the kitchen, and even better with potions."