In the kitchen, there was a stack of rather large pancakes on a platter in the middle of the table. Aria was busy at work with a smaller stack she had drowned in syrup. Hermione sat down and lifted a few pancakes on her plate, and smothered them in butter and syrup. Draco followed suit. Hermione finished her food and then ate several more pancakes before putting her plate and Aria empty dishes into the sink. After Hermione had washed off the little girl's sticky face and hands, Aria ran out to play. After washing the dishes, Draco and Hermione went into the living room.

'Daddy,' Aria squealed as they came in. She ran up and grabbed his hand.

Draco looked a little nervous.

'Will you play chess with me?' the little girl asked, leading him over to the chessboard, which was set up on the coffee table.

'Of course,' he said, smiling encouragingly at her. Draco sat down on the sofa, and Aria seated herself on a pouffe on the other side of the table. Hermione placed her wand on the end table and then sat on sofa next to Draco. Aria was apparently brilliant at chess, or seemingly so, because Draco kept groaning. Then Hermione looked at him questioningly and he winked at her.

He's letting her win on purpose. I thought he couldn't really be that bad at chess. Aria was grinning like mad as she directed her pieces across the board. Draco's pieces were shouting at him furiously.

It didn't take long before Aria pronounced, 'Checkmate!'

Draco pretended to be upset, until Aria threw her arms around his neck in a hug, and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. He looked rather flustered, but couldn't help grinning nonetheless. Aria then decided to play herself at chess, which Hermione found quite endearing.

'Psst,' Draco whispered. Hermione turned her head to look at him. 'I just thought of something. There's something I want to show you.'

He got up off the sofa and reached a hand down to help her up. Hermione took the hand, and twined her fingers through his as they walked down the corridor, outside, to a courtyard and then a giant garden.

'Wow,' Hermione said. The stone walkways meandered through thousands of beds, which were filled with exotic plants. There were elegant arrangements of delicate vines and such and wild entanglements of strangely beautiful flowers.

'It's lovely,' she smiled, looking into Draco's eyes.

'My mother worked in it herself a bit, when she thought no one was looking. And when I was little, she made sure there were healing herbs growing hidden here and there for when...' he trailed off.

Hermione searched his eyes worriedly. She squeezed his hand to comfort him as they sat down on a bench.

Draco took a deep breath and lowered his voice. 'My father used to... to test torture curses on my mother. And he would beat her. Never would he touch her face or hands though. He didn't want word getting out about it, obviously. I would sneak into her room afterwards, and she would be cringing and shaking, lying face down on her bed, with tears streaming down her face.' His face tightened. 'I would take the covers off her back. And her back would sometimes be covered in bruises, but more often in magenta or neon orange spots and welts – magical damage. My mother would whisper what curses she could remember that my father had used. I would tell her what her back looked like, and she would combine that information with how she felt, and add other curses to the list.'

'He cursed her? His own wife?' Hermione whispered, her face stricken with disbelief. She shivered closer to Draco, who put his arm around her.

'Yes. And sometimes he used cursed weapons. Never knives or the like, but ropes, switches, and anything and everything like that. After I went to my mother, I would go and look up the curses my father had used in his Dark Arts books. He would never question my frequent trips to his personal library. He always thought I was just studying up to be a Death Eater. I would find counter curses, and brew antidotes and healing potions and salves in secret while my father was at work. I would nurse my mother back to health, and she would enrich my knowledge of healing herbs and spells when she felt normal.'

'I didn't know you could do healing,' Hermione commented softly. 'I only know simple spells, ones to heal small cuts and bruises.'

'It's a skill I'm glad to have, but one I would rather never to have had to learn.'

'Why didn't the House Elves cure your mother?'

'My father had forbid them to do so. My father thought my mother healed herself. And when my mother was recovered and well, we two would do things together.'

'Like what?' prompted Hermione.

'We would actually go flying together quite a bit, believe it, or not.'

'Really?' Hermione asked, surprised.

Draco grinned, remembering it. 'Yes. My mother is brilliant at flying. She taught me how to play Quidditch long before my father bothered to do so. I never let on about that, naturally. My mother could have been on Slytherin's House team, had girls playing Quidditch not been taboo. We also played chess together, and dozens of other things.'

'Didn't your father ever get annoyed with you spending so much time with your mother? From what I know of him, I would think she was making you go soft.'

'No. He encouraged me to be out of his hair. He didn't even mind when my mother took me out shopping.'

Hermione looked at him incredulously, and smiled. 'You...went shopping with your mother?'

Draco grinned at her surprise. 'Oh yes. All over the UK. I've been in all of the finest shops in the wizarding world. And I don't mean the most expensive. I mean the finest quality shops, regardless of price range.'

'Well, all that explains why you and your mother are so close.' Hermione said to him.

'We are, but how do you know that?' Draco looked at her quizzically.

'We overheard you saying, in fourth year, how you would have gone to Durmstrang if your mother hadn't wished for you not to go so far away from her.' Hermione admitted.

Draco nodded, as he remembered saying that. 'Quite glad I didn't go to Durmstrang.' He looked at her for a moment, and them shook himself. 'We just left a four-year old alone in that house!' he announced with alarm and got to his feet. He grasped both Hermione's hands and pulled her up. She fell off balance and into his chest. Hermione tilted her head back, and they kissed. Hermione broke away almost immediately though, because they had left a four-year old alone in the house, which could turn out badly if they didn't go back in right then.

'We'd better go back in,' she said softly.

'Yeah,' Draco replied reluctantly. They Apparated back into the living room. Hermione gasped. Aria had Hermione's wand and was shooting red sparks at the walls, and making books fly across the room.

'Aria Malfoy!' Hermione said sharply. 'Give me my wand, NOW!'

Aria merrily ignored her. Hermione opened her hand, and her wand flew into it. Her fingers closed around it. Draco gaped at her.

'Go. To. Your. Room. Now.' Hermione ordered angrily. Aria hung her head and walked out of the room. Hermione turned back around, and Draco's mouth was still hanging open. Hermione realised what she had just done.

She had summoned her wand.