The following day, Hermione dropped the twins off at the daycare center as she usually did in the morning, and went to work at the Daily Prophet. She was a great writer and her articles were often published in the wizard newspaper. Ginny had planned to meet her in the lobby of the office building and together they would pick up Tristan & Emily.

Each hour passed so slowly that Hermione thought she might be going back in time instead of forward. Finally, after writing several long articles, the clock on the wall said she could leave. Wasting no time, she found Ginny reading a magazine on a wooden bench near the front door.

"Are you ready?" Hermione asked her, catching her attention.

"I'm taking the twins to my house, right?" Ginny responded, grabbing her bag and joining Hermione.

"Yeah, and I'll meet you there when I'm finished talking. I hope it goes alright; I'm not sure if I should tell him yet." She said as the debate went on inside her mind.

"If he doesn't figure it out soon then you'll have to tell him eventually. He'll probably be less upset if you tell him before he realizes he has a son & daughter."

"I guess you're right." Hermione sighed and looked up, noticing that they were already at the center.

The once empty room was now crowded with parents dressing their young children in several layers to prepare them for the cold outside. Hermione's eyes immediately spotted Draco light hair. She had become accustomed to searching for it every time she went somewhere. It had become a habit ever since his three years at school were over and she knew she might see him again.

Draco was casually leaning against the far wall, making sure each child went home with the correct parent instead of a stranger. Before approaching him, however, Hermione found her own child who was patiently holding her coat and mittens.

"Mum!" Emily & Tristan exclaimed, smiling brightly and attempting to run to their mother and aunt.

"Are you ready to go back to my house?" Ginny asked, helping Hermione dress the twins.

"Is mum coming, too?" The little girl questioned curiously. Tristan didn't noticed to ask.

"I'll meet you there Emily, I'm just going to—"

"Hermione?" A voice interrupted, turning out to be Draco, "If you're not busy, do you want to go for a walk with me? We can catch up on some things."

"Ginny, are you alright with bringing Tristan & Emily to your house?" Hermione asked as if she hadn't been planning on talking to Draco in the first place.

"Yeah, it's no problem." Ginny added and Draco smirked.

"I would have bet all the money in Gringotts that you were going to marry Potter." He stared at her, "I never would have guessed you would marry an elephant."

"Shove it, Malfoy." She said through gritted teeth, looking down at her large, pregnant figure. "I'm eight months pregnant with triplets."

"Triplets? I give you my congratulations." Draco said in his familiar tone of voice. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Thanks. Hermione, I'm leaving before he can think of something else to insult me with." Ginny took Emily's hand.

"I'll see you soon." Hermione waved goodbye to both of them as they exited. She turned back to Draco.

"We didn't have much time to talk yesterday. You're sure I'm not insult with any plans you had?" Draco asked awkwardly.

They walked out the back door of the daycare center to a back road of Diagon Alley.

"No, it's fine, don't worry." Hermione shook her head. She felt like she was walking to her doom

"How have you been for the past few years?"

"It was tough being alone with Tristan & Emily, but I've managed and things are finally going the way they should be." Hermione told him as they slowly wandered together. "Why are you working here anyway?"

Draco laughed, making the tension lessen between them. "I'm just here to have some experience with kids, even if they can barely speak. Come September though, I'll be teaching potions at Hogwarts."

"Is Snape leaving?" Hermione was surprised. He had only been there for about 20 years unlike McGonagall who seemed as if she would teach until she died.

"Dumbledore wouldn't tell me why, but it's true. Snape is leaving. With all that hard work for three years, I think I would cry if I ended up working at a daycare center for the rest of my life."

"How was school, by the way?"

"It was difficult to adjust to the amount of work with hardly any free time. I almost decided to leave after—"He cut the sentence short, biting his lip, "Never mind,"

"After what?"

"After you sent that last letter," He quietly spoke, looking at his feet. Uncomfortable silence fell and Hermione wished she could apparatus right there, but it would have been rude. "What was the real reason?"

"I don't kn—"

"Tristan's & Emily's almost three right? The first day of March is in three weeks. Nine months before March is… June." Draco calculated out loud, his eyes scanning the dull sky as if it were a calendar.

Hermione felt her heart drop. She knew he was clever but didn't think he would figure it out that fast.

"I should have told you, I know." Hermione said timidly and slightly ashamed.

"How could you do this to me? I wasn't even away for a month and you go off with some other guy and have his their kids?" Draco stopped suddenly, hurt and confused while his eyes flashed with fury.

"No, there was never another guy! I haven't been with anyone else since you!" Hermione cried, glad they were on an empty street as tears brewed under her eyelashes. The only time she ever seemed to cry was when Draco was involved.

"Then how do you explain Tristan & Emily? What about that ring? I don't think you would spend that much money on yourself, it's not something you would do." He spotted a gold band on her finger with a small ruby glimmering within it. Hermione slipped the ring off and allowed Draco to take a closer look.

"I didn't buy this ring and neither did some other guy!" She choked through the stream of tears. She chucked the ring at Draco who picked it carefully off the cold ground where it lay.

'Remember me' He read the inscription of the ring in a barely audible whisper.

"I wasn't lying to you. I've never been with anyone else and I've never gone anywhere without that ring." Hermione said, calming down a little, but worrying about his soon to come reaction.

Draco slowly looked at her, thoughts racing through his head and suddenly he seemed to understand. His eyes widened in shock as if he had been thrown into ice cold water. He cautiously made his way to a nearby bench and sat with his head in his hands for several long moments. Hermione didn't dare to move toward him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Draco questioned, lifting his head to meet her eyes.

"I…I didn't want you to come back and leave school for me. You'd be throwing away what you really wanted to do." Hermione replied cautiously. "I was planning on telling you today though. That's why Ginny came to bring the twins home."

"I could have figured something out if you had told me! We could have found a place near the school or something. I would have made it work out alright!" He said trying not to explode his angry and frustration with Hermione hiding the fact that he has a son and daughter.

"Ten minutes ago you said that you had hardly any free time. You would have been up all night doing work and every time you'd fall asleep, Tristan & Emily would wake you up. I wasn't going to give you anything else to worry about while you were at school." She explained, trying to show him her reasoning.

"Maybe if you had begged me not to come home and help you then it would have worked fine and we would still be together, but we'll never know because four years have passed. People change."

"Not everything's changed…" Hermione sighed, "I'm still in love with you." Draco flinched, not wanting to hear her say that, "I've been wondering when we would meet again, trying to think of what I would say and I always thought we'd still be the same people we were when you left. I never thought it would be like this."

"You can't expect me to come waltzing back into your arms after you ended the relationship! There were times when I just wanted to give up, knowing that you weren't mine anymore. It took me three years to get over the pain you caused me and you still cross my mind constantly."

Hermione couldn't believe what he was telling her. "The pain I caused you? Did you think for even a second how much I was going through when you left? I probably cried myself to sleep every night for the first few months. I was miserable and finding out that I was having your children didn't help much!"

"We didn't have to split up though!" Draco was back on his feet, pacing in frustration.

"Would you have preferred me lying to you for three years instead of just hiding it then?" Hermione retorted.

"I can't believe you! At least when I came home three years later we could have still been together!" He ran his fingers through his hair. Hermione took a few steps away.

"And you wouldn't have been angry with me for keeping it a secret?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Not nearly as mad as I am now!" Draco nearly yelled. "You can take the bloody ring back." He spat and dropped her ring on the dirt covered street.

Hermione sniffed, bending over to pick it up.

"I have to go." Draco said as her fingers clasped around the ring. Before Hermione could say anything else, he had appeared away with a loud crack.