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Fourteen Years

Chapter Two: Specks of Gray

When Draco arrived at the café Hermione had suggested he was running late. It took him forever to find the place and while he was much more comfortable in the muggle world then he had been before but he hadn't been back in London for fourteen years. Thinking of that made him squirm. He was about to confront another thing that had happened fourteen years ago.

The cafe was a tiny little thing dimly lit but with a bright neon green door that took up half of the front wall. He went inside and found Hermione at a small table near the back. She was sipping one of the biggest coffees he's ever seen.

"Hi Malfoy." Hermione tried to smile but she just made the awkward face again. Draco ordered himself a coffee and it was only once it had arrived and he'd swallowed the first bitter mouthful did he think he could manage the conversation.

"Okay then, what do we do now." He asked. Granger seemed to breathe a visible sigh of relief that they were talking about something.

"Why don't you start by talking about what you've been doing these last fourteen years and then I'll go, my story might be a bit longer."

"Okay then well. Um, I guess the night we, uh, met up." Hermione's face blushed scarlet and gulping Draco tried to continue quickly. "Well that night was actually my last night in the UK, In Europe actually until, well, yesterday really." This seemed to stir Hermione's interest and encouraged Draco continued a little more strongly. This entire thing was awkward. "Well I went to America, New York at first and I wasn't really doing anything for a couple of months. Just mooching around but then I met some people, and one thing led to another and we ended up working together."

Draco told her everything and he couldn't help but get excited. He didn't really have anyone he could talk to about what he'd achieved. If his parents were there to hear about what'd he'd be doing he couldn't imagine their reaction. It might only be Granger but it was good just to talk, and if anything Hermione had always been good at listening.

"Well it sounds like you've been busy over the years." Hermione said when he had finished he'd story.

"Well I guess." There was an awkward silence for a minute before Draco could bring himself to continue. "But what about you? Obviously haven't been sitting around. I think I saw at least another three kids running around the Ice-Cream Parlor yesterday and there's another one coming, what have you been up to the last fourteen years?"

Hermione smiled and stroked her tummy again. "I have been busy, but in a good way, I love every minute of it. That night fourteen years ago was my last night in the UK for a long time too. I don't know if you knew but when it was in the final years of the war I sent my parents away. I obliviated them and convinced them they had never had me and that their lifelong dream was to move to Australia which they did. So I was going to Australia the morning after that night." Hermione seemed to be struggling to find the words. The sentences came out slowly like she was planning every word before she said, which, Draco realized with a she probably was.

"Was Potter or someone going with you, that's a kind of big thing to do alone?"

"Well." Again Hermione seemed to struggle for a second to find words. "Since Ron died during the battle Harry was going to stay here with Ginny, they got married a couple of years later you know, they have three kids now. He had wanted to come but Ginny needed him more so I went alone. I actually really enjoyed myself down there. It took a while to find my parents and I went all over the coountry before I did, I got stuck up in Cairns and spent a month walking up and down tropical beaches but I did eventually find them. Once I did I had to slowly work away the obliviation and remind them who they were. It was a hard thing to do, I'd created all these memories for them which I had to convince them had never happend. They'd settled in Perth, the city on the West Coast. Really strange city it's a bit of a mix of everything, the city and the bush kind of just meld together and the beaches are great. It's the Indian Ocean there and it's really warm. The weather was always hot and summer seemed to last forever."

What she was saying now seemed easier for her. The words came quicker and Draco realized that she was talking about something happy.

"I was having a great time there, but then I realized you'd left a little something with me. I was shocked, scared and honestly furious with myself, I can't remember how we even ended up in that situation it just seems insane looking back on it then and now too really. So I went to a clinic, I thought about getting rid of it, but I couldn't. It seemed cruel and it was just good to welcome in some life to the world after so much had been lost. So I ended up at a different clinic and that was where I met Lydia. Lydia is an Australian Healer, she was a fantastic help, she really helped me through all of, well, bringing William into the world and I think she realized that there wasn't really anyone else there for me.

Australia wasn't really touched by the war at all, it was a European thing which was a bit of a shock for me. I kind of expected that everyone would know about everything we'd been through and understand but there were people who didn't even know who Voldemort was. All their government did was warn people not travel to Europe. It was strange being in a place where everyone was so relaxed, everyone was really friendly and there was literally none of the prejudice like there is here, none of the pure blood ideologies or anything like that. It was like a different world.

Lydia helped me with my parents, it was good to have a Healer helping me, she really helped me work out the kinks, and…" Here Hermione blushed violently. "Lydia introduced me to her brother Adrian. Adrian is two years older than me and his dream was to open a winery down near Margaret River. We were friends at first, I decided to stay in Perth to raise William, just because I loved the place so much. My parents were staying there and there wasn't much tying me down here so I stayed. I told Harry everything and most of the Weasley know."

Draco almost spat out his coffee. "Potter and the Weasleys knew you were raising my son and you didn't tell me!"

Hermione almost managed to laugh "I tried at one point when William was around three but you'd disappeared off the face if the earth, no one knew where you were but now it sounds like you were off in Cuba during the time."

"Oh, okay, then, I can't believe Potter knew and he didn't kill me."

"If he could find you he would have but you never really gave him the chance. Something you should probably be grateful for."

Draco mumbled something under his breath. "Is that why William has that funny voice? Because he's been living in Australia?"

Hermione did laughed out loud this time. "Yeah he didn't pick up my accent at all. He's not even a British citizen, proud of it too. He complains whenever we have to come here to visit Harry. And anyway Malfoy you can't talk, it sounds like you've been spending a bit too much time in the America's, you're not sounding so English anymore."

Draco pushed his chair back slightly. He was losing his accent? That was just too weird. "Well what happened next? That doesn't explain how you're so pregnant."

Hermione smiled, she seemed to be relaxing a little bit. "Well I was living in an apartment in Perth with just me and William. My parents were really helpful, I can't believe they actually forgave me for everything but they did and Lydia became one of my best friends. I decided to study healing, specializing in obliviation and memory loss and recoverey. It was hard studying, I actually wasn't fully qualified until William was six. I was working in a flower shop of all things before that. When William was four I started dating Lydia's older brother Adrian. I was really cautious at first, I didn't really see anyone until him but, I think I really wanted to. He was so good to me, he acted like a dad to William and he and Lydia just let me into their family. We got married two years later at the vineyard he'd just opened down at Margaret River. It was beautiful."

Again Hermione seemed to smile and relax as she spoke about her wedding. Draco wondered if the Potters and the Weasleys had been there.

"We didn't have any children for a year but when William was seven I became pregnant for the second time and that was when I had the twins, a boy and a girl, Riley and Freya, they're both seven now. Yesterday you me Freya and you also met Alice. She's almost two, Adrian and I had her when William was 12 and Riley and Freya were five."

Hermione kept talking, the more she talked the more Draco could feel the awkwardness just ebb away. They ordered lunch and just kept talking. Well Hermione did most of the talk and Draco learned pretty much her entire life story. She lived at this place called Margaret River on a winery with this bloke Adrian, their three kids and William. Her next baby was due in just over a month and they were visiting Harry and his family and her old friends. They tried to come back a couple of times a year apparently. The only thing she didn't really talk about much was William.

"What about William though? You've hardly said a thing about him. Is there anything of me in him at all? Is he a Slytherin? Is he going to Hogwarts? Can people tell he's not Adrian's son? Does he know that he's not Adrian's son?"

Hermione sighed. "William knows, Adrian knows everything, but I haven't told William who you are, he didn't know you were his bio-logical father when he saw you yesterday but he does know that Adrian is not really his dad."

For some reason the words bio-logical father stung Draco, it was like he didn't exist and he was the boys dad.

"William isn't going to Hogwarts, and if he was I can assure you that he would never be a Slytherin, he's a real Gryffindor at heart I think but he considers himself an Aussie, he was born in the country and his entire family is there. He's really close with Lydia's kids, there a little older but there really good friends. He's not going to Hogwarts, he's been going to the United Australian College of Magic since he was ten, they start school earlier there."

"The United Australian College for Magic, What kind of name for a school is that?"

"Well they call it UACM or just United and the name has changed a thousand times since the school was started in 1901, the year of Australian federation. Previous to 1901 that school was lots of smaller schools all over the country in the different states, all with different names and curriculums but when the Australian states united to create Australia in 1901 the schools all united as well and…"

"Jeez, I don't need the history of the school Granger, just tell me what's William like, does he like quidditch, a son of mine would have to be good at quidditch."

Hermione took another big gulp of her second coffee. "Well he is good at it, he just doesn't really like it." Draco was in shock and this time he really did gag on his coffee.

"How can he not like it? How is that even possible?"

Hermione sighed, Draco guessed she'd had this conversation with Harry a thousand times."Well we live in Margaret River, It's one of the surfing capitals of the country and he's been surfing since he was six. He's pretty much addicted to the sport it was Lydia's husband who started teaching him. He's really good at it too, I don't know where he gets it from, I can't imagine you being any good at it but William loves it. He's been teaching Freya but Riley really likes quidditch, he's playing with Harry today actually."

Draco just couldn't say anything. It seemed like there was nothing of him in his son.

Hermione must have been able to guess what he was thinking. Pregnant women are always good at reading minds. "He kind of has you eyes you know."

Draco didn't say anything but Hermione continued. "When he was first born they were as grey as yours, as he got older though they got darker. They're almost brown now but there are still specs of grey in them."

"Really?"

"Yeah, specs of gray."

It had started raining again and neither of the two thirty year olds seemed to have anything to say. As they left the stood for a moment in front of the Neon Green Door they shook hands and even managed a smile. Hermione told him she'd be in London for a week or so before they had to floo home for William to start his fifth year of school on the second of February. Draco hadn't made any plans and now he just wasn't sure what to do. Hermione said goodbye and walked across the road to start her way home and Draco just stood there. What was he supposed to do now?

- So there you have it guys! Chapter two of Fourteen Years! Please tell me what you thought of all my Aussie contributions, any ideas are welcome and I'll be sure to see where the ideas came from!

-Thank you again and please, please, please review!

~ :D Kellsabelle