A/N: It's Sapphire with a new chapter! Woot!

Wow! A short beginning chapter… but I had amazing reactions! When I opened my email account, I had, like, eight emails stating there were eight people either following or favoriting my story! You can not know how much this pleases my difficult-to-please twelve year old self!

Also, in answer to violets sparkle's review, yes, this is going to be a Dramione story, but since it's only the beginning, it will be Cassiopeia centric, but soon it'll gradually shift to Hermione and Draco's POV.


Chapter 2:

She had spent the rest of the day alone, reading the books she had purchased that day.

It was around dinner time her mother came home.

"Hi, Mum."

Hermione looked up, her brown eyes looking tired as usual. "Hey, Cassie," she said. A faint smile formed on her lips. "How was your day?"

Cassiopeia shrugged. "Fine. What's for dinner?"

Hermione held up a plastic bag. "I bought take-out from the place you love."

After stabbing her fork into her fried noodles, Cassiopeia glanced at her mother, whose gaze was currently cast down, fork moving feebly.

"Mum, do you know anyone called Draco Malfoy? You know, the one that came up in the newspaper a couple times?"

Hermione froze, her eyes widening. "What?" she asked, as if she couldn't believe what Cassiopeia had asked.

Cassiopeia looked down, wondering if asking her mother this was really a good idea. "Draco Malfoy. He was asking for you today. At the bookstore."

Hermione clutched to her fork like a lifeline. "Did he now," she said, her voice surprisingly unwavering.

"Yeah," Cassiopeia replied. "Even had a little conversation and everything."

The older brunette set her fork down, her mouth forming an 'o'. If Cassiopeia didn't know any better, she would've thought there was even a hint of panic in her mother's eyes.

"Merlin, I - stay - stay right here, Cassie, I'll be right back, okay? Just - stay - "

"Where are you going? Are you okay?"

Hermione stumbled toward the fireplace. "Everything's fine, just stay - " She took a deep breath. "I'll be right back."

"Wait - "

"The Potter residence," Hermione called, and in a moment, she was gone in a swirl of green flames.

Cassiopeia blinked. "Okay," she whispered to nobody. She had never seen her mother look so frazzled before. She had always been so put together.

Hermione had told her to stay there, but, well, she was never really the one to listen to directions anyway, so shrugging, Cassiopeia took a fistful of Floo powder.

"The Potter Residence!" said Cassiopeia, hoping to find an answer to why the name Draco Malfoy triggered such a reaction on her mother.


"What do you think they're talking about?" Cassiopeia asked glumly.

"Dunno, can't hear anything. Your mum and my mum put up silencing charms," said James Sirius Potter. "Maybe we can ask Dad to eavesdrop on them."

Cassiopeia snorted. "As if that'd work."

"I guess."

There was a moment of silence.

"You're so lucky you have Harry," said Cassiopeia unexpectedly.

"He's your godfather, what better could you get from him?" James asked, his eyebrows raised.

Cassiopeia examined a nail. "Well, not so much of Harry himself, but as a father. I wish I had a dad. Then maybe Mother and I would have some more family time together."

James stayed quiet.

Cassiopeia sighed. "I've tried so many times asking Mother who my father is, and at least what happened to him. Apparently it's a sensitive topic. I'm twelve years old! Don't I deserve to know who my own father is?

"And there's that entire fuss about Draco Malfoy. Fine. They're old friends. So what? Mother doesn't have to be all hysterical hearing his name."

Cassiopeia flopped onto James' bed. He opened his mouth to protest, but Cassiopeia cut him off.

"He left London for America twelve or thirteen years ago, right? I remember seeing that in the papers," said Cassiopeia.

"Yeah…" said James, unsure as to where she was going with this.

"How cool would it be if Draco Malfoy was my dad?"

James cleared his throat. "Um, yeah, excuse me?"

"If Draco Malfoy was my dad. Merlin, James, get a new pair of ears."

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time. What I meant was, what?"

"Maybe I can convince Mother to hire him - or anyone - to be my dad."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right, I always knew you weren't sane but this is downright crazy," James said.

Cassiopeia sighed. "I know. You know what? I'm going to ask my mom who my dad really is. Find out once and for all. You know, no more lies and secrets and all that stuff."

"Yeah? Well, not a good idea," James muttered.

Cassiopeia made a face. "You're right. I'll ask Ginny."

"What?"

"Bye, James!"


Cassiopeia made her way downstairs to the living room where Ginny was.

"You're mother's already home, I told her you'd be coming soon after," said Ginny.

"Thanks, Ginny," Cassiopeia said. "But I have a question I have to ask you."

"Ask away," Ginny said, settling into her arm chair.

"Do you know who my father is?" Cassiopeia

There was a pause.

"You know," Ginny said softly, "that's not a question that you should ask me. That's between you and your mother."

Cassiopeia sat down on the armchair across Ginny. "I would ask her, but I can't. It's just one of those things I can't talk to her about. I mean, just today, I mentioned some old friend or something to her and she went bonkers."

Ginny's eyes flashed. "Well, was that old friend dead?"

Cassiopeia frowned. "No, I should hope not. It was Draco Malfoy, and if he's dead, then I've seen a very convincing clone of him in the Flourish and Blotts this morning."

"Draco Malfoy…" said Ginny, tilting her head.

"What?" Cassiopeia demanded. "Do you know him?"

Ginny shook her head. "Not as well as I thought I did, apparently," she said, with the slightest hint of bitterness in her voice. She took a deep breath. "I think you should go home, Cassie. I'll see you in the morning."

Cassiopeia gave her godmother a long hard look. "All right, Ginny," she said finally. "See you."


"Draco?" said a female voice.

"Coming," Draco replied. However, he did not move from his comfortable armchair in front of the fire.

"You've been sitting in front of the fireplace forever!"

"Yeah." Draco said. "I know."

Cassiopeia Granger. Her snarky attitude and her love for books reminded Draco greatly of Hermione, but the girl looked nothing like her. Cassiopeia reminded Draco strongly of someone, but Draco couldn't exactly place his finger on who. It was teasing him, on the back of his mind - who did she remind him of?

However charming the young girl was, she was still Hermione's daughter, and it still meant Hermione had moved on… moved on from him. It had taken his six years after their horrible break up to finally get himself a new girlfriend. But now, back at London, he found out Hermione had a daughter. She had replaced him with someone else, though he didn't know who yet.

"How about we go out for dinner?" asked the bubbling voice.

"But we already went out for lunch together," Draco said.

"Does it really matter?" the woman giggled.

Draco shook his head. "Whatever you say, Carmelita, whatever you say," he said.