Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, places, or ideas relating to or pertaining to the world of Harry Potter and JK Rowling. I graciously thank JK for her life-changing works and our ability as faithful readers to use her creations as our own for pure fanfiction pleasure.

I've always had a vision of writing about Draco smoking so don't yell at me if you're offended by this habit. I smoke myself and I find it sexy to see a guy lighting one up too.

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Chapter Five – Where Do We Go From Here?

His office still reeked off pungent tobacco smoke several days later, although Draco would never admit to having swiped the rest of Astoria's cigarettes to smoke them himself as he worked through his irate and disappointed emotions concerning Isla's negligence of their date the week before. The small dish of an ashtray was brimming with ashy butts and he glared at the opposing object as he rounded the edge of his desk to toss the plate out the window. Draco stopped in front of the glass pane, unlocking the golden clasp to push the clear panel from its frame to allow an unusually cool breeze blow through. It was only the middle of September but he felt as if it had been months since he had seen his love at the train station.

Closing his silver eyes to sigh heavily with the refreshing wind, Draco opened them to tiredly gaze at the expanse of the Manor's grounds, his knees bending as he soundly sat down on the short bench under the window. The smell of the dead cigarettes was irrelevant and as he briefly glanced down to the ashtray, he noticed there were two smokes left in the square box and promptly retrieved one, placing the soft filter between his lips as he snapped his fingers and the end lit.

Draco inhaled deeply, relishing in the slight tingling in his lungs and the slow sway of his vision as a quick spell of lightheadedness engulfed his senses with the first few drags. Exhaling the smoke in a thin stream, he knocked the burning end against the edge of the dish to ash it, returning the papery filter to his lips. The cigarette allowed him a few minutes of peaceful thinking, his silver eyes becoming distant as he unblinkingly stared at a grove of trees in the distance.

In the past, it had not been like Isla to completely miss an appointment, granted she was usually late but she always showed up to the designated spot within a reasonable amount of time. Draco could only guess that he had been unfortunate enough to send the owl within a time frame that Thom could have intercepted the note. But that still would not have mattered as the letter had been charmed blank, the message for her eyes only. Which left Draco to assume that Isla had merely chosen to neglect his words and ignore the urgency with which he had penned the missive. And how could he not take that clue to mean that she no longer cared for him?

He could still remember the desperate, pleading look to her sapphire eyes at the train station, a series of emotions that he had originally interpreted as repressed longing and desire. But now - Draco realized that Isla may have been correct in assuming that their love would cost them more, again, than they were willing to part with. Denying the ache in his muscled chest as the breaking of his steely heart that it was, he resolved that if he could not have Isla he could still maintain a relationship with their daughter. He had every right, and probably the social clout to enforce it, to know Isabella and Draco would be damned to hell before he allowed his flesh and blood to be raised thinking that the pathetic excuse for a wizard that was Thom Mercade was her true father.

The cigarette heated up between his fingers where it had smoked down completely and the blonde took one last, burning inhale before he deftly smushed the butt into the ashtray with the others. Picking up the dish and lazily dumping the smelly contents into the bush on the other side of the open window, Draco left the glass pane ajar to air out his office as he easily stood and returned to stand behind his desk, his slight hands tapping against the edge anxiously as his mercury orbs flitted over the random items and documents covering the oak furniture.

There was a pile of books stacked on one corner and he stared pointedly at the text on top, unknowingly frowning at the shiny, golden title proclaiming the tome to be focused on the Malfoy family line. Whenever a new member of the ancient wizarding clan was born, their name was magically transcribed into the heavy book, much like the text at Hogwarts that captured the birth of every newborn witch and wizard. This had been the first book that he had retrieved from the Manor's library, anxious to know the truth behind Isabella's lineage and not disappointed when he saw her name scrawled beautifully on the same date as Scorpius' delivery into the world. Draco knew it was not coincidence that both his children shared the same birthday and now more than ever he was determined to unite his scattered family, hopefully longing that he would be able to convince Isla to join him once more on the shaky path of their lives together.

Draco hated to beg but he was almost willing to do anything to speak to Isla. Knowing that Astoria was out shopping for the day with Pansy, he tugged on the lapels of his dark green coat and turned to round his desk once more. The location of her house had been easily discovered once he chose to begin looking into her and Draco was grateful that he had become obsessed with Isla over the past week so that he was already prepared to Apparate to her home now that he was determined to confront her.

Since it was nearing the middle of the day, Thom would surely be at work at the Ministry, allowing him the perfect opportune chance to bombard Isla. Draco ran a few fingers through his blonde locks distractedly, his mind irrationally jumping ahead of the logical steps he should be taking to go with his gut instinct to show up unannounced at her home. There would be no way that she could escape his questioning and he strode across his office to hastily jerk open the wooden door, pulling it shut behind him with a loud echo as he retrieved his wand and hurriedly walked through the corridors. He did not pass any elves but the portraits watched him with interest as Draco easily walked out the front door and slammed that one shut too as he left the Manor. Disregarding the anti-Apparation wards on the estate, he flourished his wand, sliding shut his silver eyes, and pictured the pale stone building in his mind, never planning to admit that he might have snuck over to her house late one night when he was feeling nostalgic, a quick pop surfacing as the only indication that he had left as Draco disappeared from sight.

The openness of the large property that Isla's house sat on allowed for a hefty wind to blow as he appeared several hundred meters from the looming structure. Draco wasted no time in stowing his wand and strutting forward to walk up a neatly manicured, winding gravel path to the wide front doors. The sun was hot on his back but he knew better than to remove his coat just yet as he took a giant step over the short stairs up to the entrance, his right hand fisting to knock rapidly on the glossy wooden door. Rising his hand to rap his knuckles again, Draco paused when he heard the shuffling of someone inside and suddenly realized the drive that had pushed him to come here now was actually a ball of anticipatory anxiousness that tensed his nerves and set his senses on edge.

She was obviously not expecting the person at her door to have been Draco as Isla immediately froze, weary smile in place, once the thin barrier was opened and she was staring at the blonde wizard who had disrupted her life, over a decade ago and within the past month. Isla instantly pushed the door forward again, aiming to shut it in his face, when Draco slid a foot between the frames and winced slightly when the forceful object impacted with his boot.

"Isla - wait!" He pleaded, a pale hand slipping around the edge of the door to shove it open again as she attempted to shut it anyways. "I just want to talk! You at least owe me that since you didn't show up last week." Still she tried to close him out and Draco sighed in frustration, wearily adding the word that was always her downfall when said by him. "Please."

Not allowing her a second to reconsider once she slightly paused her pushing of the door, he pressed his weight forward and turned sideways to slid between the barely ajar doors, taking control of the sudden situation by returning it to the large frame as the scant sunlight disappeared from the tall foyer.

"Did you not get my letter?" He asked, knowing there was no way that she had not received it but wanting to test her lying abilities should she say she hadn't.

Isla did not respond, her hands were fumbling against her waist and she looked as if she were going to vomit any minute, the only indications that she had heard him before she rapidly glanced up at his blank stare.

"You shouldn't be here," she said and Draco was surprised, and irritated, that she was so unwilling to even listen to what he had to say. Then again stubbornness was one of her more favorable qualities that had attracted him to her in the first place.

"So you did get my letter. Why did you not show up? Or at least send me a note saying so much," he gruffly demanded, his patience already gone with this blonde witch.

"Thom found it first," Isla weakly defended, her voice a whisper as she hung her head in shame, not realizing that she was conveying to Draco that she had wanted to see him. "He wouldn't leave it alone until he had read the letter."

Her following silence led him to believe that the argument that had taken place once Thom had read it was not a pleasant discussion and the gentle sagging of her shoulders told him that she would rather not discuss the elephant that had always been a part of her marriage. "Did he hurt you?" Draco inquired, his tone deathly low as he restrained the anger that threatened to correspond with his falsely calm voice. "I swear by Merlin - if he so much as laid a hand on you -" he began but stopped when Isla rotated her neck to bitterly laugh, her empty sapphire eyes meeting his gaze with no evidence of the mirth he was used to seeing in them.

"He knows better than that. Give me some credit," she bitterly retorted. "Thom wouldn't hurt a fly even if it landed on him the wrong way."

"So you just decided that ignoring my letter was the easiest option."

Isla sighed heavily, her eyelids sliding shut as her chest heaved dramatically.

"What was I supposed to do, Draco? Leave my husband and son for a few hours because you finally decided, after ten long years, to come calling?" He gritted his teeth at her harsh tone but reveled in the sensation that crawled across his skin when she said his name. It sounded so perfect coming off her lips and for a split second he wanted to demand that she just repeat his name over and over. "I can't give you what you want anymore, Draco. That time has passed. I think you should go now."

A rumbling growl tore its way up his throat and he had to clench and unclench his fists at his sides to keep from turning around and punching a wall.

"You can't just get rid of me that easily," he bit out, one eyebrow cocking and her gaze incredulous as her lips parted slightly to gape at his audacity. "You've had a piece of me for eleven years now. I want to know my daughter and I want her to know that that leech is not her father."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Isla questioned, fury spiking her temper as her chest and cheeks flushed with oncoming anger. "Just waltz into Hogwarts and demand to speak to a child that is nor yours? You'll just blurt out that her whole life has been a lie but that you really want to make it up to her?"

He could not contain the roar of emotions this time but Draco resorted to groaning loudly to release the swirling storm of irate agitation that he had unseemingly missed over the years, a tumultuous feeling that only Isla and his father could bring out in him.

"You're the one who has been lying to her! Don't blame this on me!" He roared, mercury eyes growing darker as his breathing increased and his face appeared to gain a set of shadows that made his features look threatening. "You lied to me and to her - none of this would be happening if you had told me of your pregnancy to start with!"

"And what? You would have just forgotten about your secret bride and lovechild to sweep me off my feet when I had just spent three months in hell without you remembering who I was?" Isla countered, her shoulders pulling backwards as her chin lifted in defiance of his accusations. "I don't think so," she added and laughed bitterly. "The great Draco Malfoy could not tarnish his reputation by divorcing the woman who was carrying his child - the same witch who not only made my life miserable at school but who somehow managed to sneak her way into my adultlife to ruin any happiness I thought I had."

"I would have done right by you just like I did with Astoria!" Draco screamed, his composure completely lost as his grey eyes went wild with frustration at their round about conversation. "I loved you, Isla! I did what I thought was best for everyone - especially you. I couldn't have you find out through some gossiping whore that I had made a grave mistake."

"But that's exactly what happened!" Isla yelled. "Sure - you did lose your memory for a while there but you knew before we got back what was waiting for us. And you did nothing to prevent me from thinking that we would have our happily ever after. You didn't even have the balls to tell me that you had slept with someone else in the first place."

"Why would I? You would have flown off the handle and left without even listening to me!"

Isla bit down hard on her bottom lip, the coppery taste of blood on her tongue focusing her attention as she mentally counted to three to dissipate some of her anger. "You are the only man I have ever loved, Draco," she started calmly, her facial muscles secured in place to show an impassive mask as she slowly worked through the honesty that she had never had the chance to tell him. "When I woke up and read the Prophet that morning - it took everything in me to not run down there and curse them all for slander. You tore my heart out and cut it in two and I could not forgive you for it. You lied worse than I did when I neglected to tell you about Isabella, Draco. I trusted you."

The blonde wizard threw his head back and tossed his hands into the air, his silver eyes rolling dramatically before he tilted his chin down to levelly meet her gaze with an exasperated sigh.

"Fine - keep your grudge for as long as you like but the past is the past, we can't change anything that has happened anymore than we could travel through time without magic." Isla merely raised one honey eyebrow, jaw clenching tightly as she waited for him to finish waxing poetically so she could tell him to leave once more. "I just want to see my daughter," Draco pleadingly admitted, his tone defeated as she continued to stare at him as if her mind were already made up.

"Oh yea? How are you going to do that? She's at school - there is no way for you to see her until the holidays." Isla smirked in gloating satisfaction, now eager to verbally abuse him as the ever present tingling of anxious nerves dissipated for righteous pride in her quick thinking. "And even then - it just wouldn't work out."

"Why are you so against me seeing my daughter?" Draco asked point blank, his face devoid of emotion as he coldly assessed her silently bragging.

Isla allowed both eyebrows to raise incredulously, her ocean eyes narrowing and red lips pursing as she wondered if he was really this dense. "You left me, Draco. Marriage or not, you chose her over me. When I found out I was pregnant that day," she paused, a sigh escaping as she defeatedly lowered her gaze. Even though she was still mad at him, thinking about, let alone actually verbalizing, the roughest patch in her life brought tears to her downcast orbs. She continued in a softer tone, the reminiscence lacing her words as she whispered, "I didn't know what to do." Isla cleared her throat, ridding the lump that had formed that would only make her sound more emotional than she truly was. "Thom came bursting in right after the doctors and the rest just kinda. . . happened."

Draco wanted desperately to hold her, to tell her it was okay and that he was sorry for not being there. If he had just gone after her, if he had only thought that maybe she wanted to be followed. Isla was obviously mentally exhausted from just those sentences about her pregnancy, the emotional weight heavy as she was not one to normally voice her feelings and private thoughts.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Draco asked instead, his feet turning as he began walking to the kitchen as if he had been to this house many times before. Isla looked up, perplexed by his knowing actions but moving to follow anyways. Their argument seemed to have vanished into thin air and for the most comfortable moment, it felt right for the two of them to be casually standing in the kitchen making tea.

As if in a trance Isla could do nothing more than slid sideways onto a bar stool against the marble island, her blue eyes peeled to Draco as he deftly maneuvered her cabinets to find the necessary ingredients before placing a kettle on the stove top. Without thinking he discarded the heavy emerald jacket that was now suffocating him, tossing it over the back of a chair before rolling up the sleeves of his charcoal button down up to his elbows, the sinewy muscles rippling as Isla sat, completely and momentarily mesmerized.

The clinking of a ceramic mug against the marble counter top swayed her attention and Isla sheepishly glanced away, her heart already changing her actions and betraying her mind even after only a handful of minutes in Draco's presence. The sound was enough to take her away from her foggy thoughts and she let her lips turn up involuntarily in a small gesture of gratitude before her hands wrapped around the warm cup and she brought the steaming mug up to press against her mouth, a steady gulp slowing the seconds until she had to either speak to him or meet his gaze.

"You really shouldn't be here, Draco," she stated again, setting the mug back down and twirling the handle between two fingers as it gently slid across the marble.

"Does it look like I'm going anywhere, love?" He responded, taking a sip from his mug as one hand gripped the smooth edge of the counter top and he pressed his hip into the wooden paneling underneath.

"Thom could be home at any second," she reasoned, blue stare still intent on the unassuming pattern within the stone counter as she noticed his slight movement towards her.

"I'm not leaving until you agree to let me see Isabella," Draco said levelly, his words evenly clipped to enforce his strong stance on the issue. "She's my daughter too."

"Draco - please," Isla nearly whispered, both hands shaking lightly until she let go of the mug and folded her fingers together neatly in her lap, her voice weary as she reluctantly relented. "You can meet her - just - just not now."

"I'm not asking to go right this minute for you to introduce me," he admonished, his soft tone shocking her but she reasoned he must have picked it up along the years of being a father. "I just want to know that I'll have a place in her life." Draco let a hand slowly slid across the counter top, pausing within her line of vision so she could stop him but when she didn't move, he gently placed his palm over her wrist and squeezed reassuringly. "And maybe, one day, in yours as well."

Unfortunately, and both of them would wonder afterwards if they had really heard something or if Fate was merely being cruel, it was in that moment that the faint pop of Apparation sounded and there was scantly a second for them to look up before Thom pushed open the kitchen door, immediately halting in the doorway as he surveyed the scene in his kitchen. Isla should have felt a stirring of anxiousness but she merely stared at her husband, her hand grasped under another man's grip, as his emerald eyes widened and his lips drew into an invisible line. The slowed moment passed and she jerked her arm away from Draco, her waist turning as she fluidly moved off the chair to rush to Thom as he began yelling.

"What the fuck are you doing here? This is my house and you will never come here again!" He charged forward and Isla stayed strong as he ran into her and she held him back from attacking the blond wizard who was arrogantly smirking as usual, throwing his long blonde hair over his shoulders as if he were not concerned with the matter.

"He was just leaving!" Isla replied, glancing back at Draco to give him a pointed glare.

"Is this what you've been doing while I'm gone - sleeping with your lifelong lover with our son upstairs?" Thom turned on her, his spit spraying her face as he focused on the change of emotions visible on her face.

"What? ! No!" Isla stuttered, sapphire eyes blinking rapidly as she took a small step backwards, as if having been slapped.

"So he just popped by unannounced? And now you're having tea as if you're old chaps? Is that it?" Thom growled and she swore she saw fire behind his green orbs, fierce anger definitely boiling.

"Well, actually -" Draco interrupted but was silenced with a quick "shut the fuck up!" from Thom before he cocked an ashen eyebrow and waited to see how long it would take the imbecile to break him this time.

"I always wondered why you demanded to leave the country so often," he said to Isla, garnering a skeptical gaze from her as she worried where he was going with that. "You were seeing him all these years, weren't you? Every time you came home late - or came in smelling of liquor, you had been with him, hadn't you?" He gave her no time to respond before he grabbed her shoulders roughly and shook her frame. "I knew it was too good to be true. I had wondered but this just confirms it all. You're in love with him - and you always will be. I was always -"

Draco stopped him from hurting Isla any longer, physically and verbally, by moving her out the way so he could grab Thom by his right shoulder to steady his aim before drawing back a clenched fist and slamming it forward against the short stubble of his blunt jaw. The shorter, dark haired wizard fell backwards slightly but quickly regained his balance as a hand came up to rub at the sore area, his other arm rearing back to attempt to land a blow on his blonde opponent. Both being trained in the rigorous Unspeakables methods left little room for either to gain an upper hand as Thom barely grazed his knuckles past Draco's chin but the blonde's neck snapped sideways and Isla audibly whimpered as his eyes rolled back into his head and he seemed to sway.

It was only seconds before Draco was solidly on his feet and he rapidly lunged forward to ram Thom backwards until they hit the short space of wall next to the open door. He was able to knock the wind out of him but Thom found a slight advantage in his shorter height as he was able to raise a fist and bring it up to hit Draco on the underside of his jaw, the blonde stumbling backwards as his vision blurred and his teeth felt like they were rattling in his mouth. He was quick to throw another punch to the blonde's face, this time making contact with his straight nose as blood poured down instantly, before Isla was able to process the level of hatred with which they were fighting and she began screaming.

"Stop! Stop it!"

When that did not get their attention, Draco now holding a hand around his broken nose with a murderous glare in his silver eyes and Thom shaking out his hand as he approached his foe, she hurried in between, her back against Draco's front as Thom continued forward, an arm ready to push Isla out of the way to get to the blonde wizard.

"Thom! Stop it! Stop it! This won't solve anything!"

"Stay out of this! You caused this in the first place!" He fired back, pushing at her shoulder to get her out of the way but Isla grew angier with defiance and she suddenly shoved her chest forward to propel herself to Thom, her weight impacting his momentum so he nearly lost his balance. Isla hastily glanced back to Draco to make sure he had stopped the bleeding, the second lasting too long as Thom rounded back to exert the necessary force to hit her across the cheek. She wanted to immediately hit him back but Isla was shocked, her blue eyes widening as she felt the bruise begin to swell and the pain radiate throughout her face. Tears leaked to the corners of her ocean orbs and even Draco seemed to be too surprised to jump forward.

Thom realized what he had done but did not appear apologetic, instead frowning slightly before his emerald eyes gleamed maliciously and a sneer pulled up one corner of his lips.

"I hope you're happy now," he spat.

A sob tore apart her quivering mouth and Isla wanted to crumble into a shaking heap but her husband quickly glared at Draco behind her, then giving her a once over as he shook his dark head, a hand raising to rub his sore jaw as he glanced down and chuckled mirthlessly.

"You never did make this easy for me," Thom declared bitterly and turned to walk out the open door. Isla closed her eyes to inhale deeply, knowing when she peeled apart her lids everything would have changed. The sound of his Disapparation was distant, the pop barely registering as she raced through a stream of thoughts. Thom had presumably gone to a hotel, or more likely a hotel bar, and she allowed a lone tear to fall off the fringes of her thick eyelashes to splatter across her bruised cheek, all of her assumed sadness for her failed marriage seeping out in that single drop.

Draco was at a loss for what to do now, his first instinct being to comfort her but he knew Isla well enough to understand that she wanted space right now. When she was ready to talk, she would do so. Against his better judgment though he took a silent step forward, his right arm achingly encircling her neck across her collarbones as he gently pulled her backwards to lean against his chest. Isla let a deep breath resound in her lungs, her nostrils inhaling the signature scent that was Draco and her eyes remaining shut until his arm became heavy, itching as if she could not be far enough away from his touch.

Draco followed with his own sigh of discontent, a piece of resonating anger flaring as she lunged forward and spun out of his grasp.

"Love - please," he whispered wearily, his gaze drooping and eyebrows connecting in the middle as his most sympathetic stare morphed his face.

"Please what?" Isla screamed, tears streaming over her flushed cheeks as she began a resentful tirade. "Run back into your arms? - because that made everything so much better? Please, Draco - you've done nothing but destroy my life since the day I met you. You were selfish then and you're selfish now. You can't change yourself as much as I can't change the past - no matter how hard you try, no matter how many times you declare your love and deny your marriage, you can't fix me. You can't fix what you did wrong."

"I know but -"

"But nothing," Isla roared, the salty tracks dry as her chest rapidly heaved and she glared at him with all of the pent up loathing she had stored inside for a dozen years. "You can't even keep your nose out of my business long enough for me to make my own marriage successful. You just had to come by so you could make yourself known. You knew Thom would be here and you still just popped by to make your demands about a child that you never had any interest in. He was there for me when Isabella was born; he was here when I became depressed and didn't want to leave my bed because I couldn't stand to look at our daughter because she looks so much like you. Thom was there for me and you weren't. You had to go play house with that bitch while I cried myself to sleep for months. You know nothing about what I've been through and you know nothing about your daughter."

He wanted to lash back at her, he needed to release the ball of guilty fury that was bubbling in his chest but Draco knew it was wisest to ignore her pointed jabs at him if he wanted to keep his plan going, the soft ache across his face reminding him that he had already crossed a bridge today by defending her honor in front of her abusive husband. It was in his nature to grow cold and heartless when things had not gone the Malfoy way yet Draco fought to keep every single change he had made over the years in place as he neutrally stared at Isla's back once she had turned around and began sobbing not so quietly. As the man who loved her, and whom he knew she loved as well, he longed to fully wrap his arms around her and comfort her. Isla would eventually calm down and quit beating her fists against him if he tried - she would understand that he only meant to help her.

But now was not that time and Draco begrudgingly accepted that there was little for him to do while she was so upset, currently at least. This was a minor hiccup in his overall goals, Isla could only resist him for so long after all, and he knew it was in his best interests now to heal his face before his bones healed incorrectly and he gave her another reason to hate looking him in the eye.

Isla would blame herself for as long as it took him to prove her wrong. He knew her inside and out and he realized there had to be another way back into her heart if not through his charms alone. Without reaching out to reassure her that it would be alright, his hand going as far as hovering over her shoulder before he firmly took a step backwards, Draco nodded once to the silent kitchen and easily strode through the kitchen door to pause outside, his grey eyes sad but determined, to glance through the glass windows at his weeping, blonde witch.

The second sound of Disapparation barely registered in her head, enough though for Isla to grasp that Draco had left, and she finally let her lips part to groan mournfully for her own mistakes that had created her unhappiness. Surprised that William had not come hurrying downstairs when the fighting had escalated, she pressed her back against the wall and slid down until she was curled in on herself on the floor. Nearly silent sobs still raking her frame, Isla closed her eyes and rested her head against her knees, now more than ever disgusted by the actions that had once again left her alone.

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A/N:

Thank you for reading. If you would be most gracious I would appreciate you leaving me a review. They mean the world to me and I can't tell you enough how much I am feening for some attention to be shown to this story and its predecessor. The next chapter will be along in a bit, after I get through another chapter or two for Lucky in Fate, so please leave me some feedback to satiate your hunger for Draco and his lovely OC, Isla.