Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Hermione put down the letter form Mike with a heavy sigh. Mike said he still loved her and had no ill will toward her for what Mrs. Malfoy had done. He even still wished to get married in a month. Hermione however, was having second thoughts about it. She loved Mike dearly, but something Draco had said to her the other night wouldn't leave her mind. 'Do I just love him because he loves me?' She wondered for the millionth time.

After the war she had watched friend after friend get married and live a great life. At every wedding she was dateless and got lots of pity looks from everyone. It wasn't that she couldn't find a date, hell she opened a door said her name and the men would just line up. The only problem with that was they weren't really interested in her. On her dates with them all they would talk about was the war and money and fame. 'But never just me.' She looked at the letter once more. Mike had been the first man not to even ask about the war. He seemed truly interested in her and her alone.

She couldn't remember how or why she had fallen for him other than the fact he showed her he did not care where she had been or where she was going, just as long as he got to be there in the end. "Oh Hermione dear!" Narcissa called into her room. Draco's mother had taken a great liking to her and often came to her to chat often.

"Here mum," Hermione called back to her. The other day Narcissa told her that she was not allowed to call her anything but mum and grand mum, once the baby was born. Hermione thought of protesting at first, but then decided there was no harm in calling the woman mum why she was there.

"Oh there…What are you wearing?" Narcissa said as she entered Hermione's bedroom. Hermione was in a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt. "No, no you can't be seen like that," She said, opening her dresser drawers.

"What is wrong with it?" Hermione asked not seeing what was so awful. She had learned there was no point in fighting with the other woman about anything really. She had watched countless times as the other woman would win a fight with her son just by snapping her fingers and pointing.

"As long as you are carrying my grandchild and living in this house you will dress like a lady." Narcissa was still looking at all her things "We're going to find something worthy of a Malfoy in all this junk and then were going shopping!" She pulled out a dress Hermione had worn once to a wedding. "This will do…Olivia!" The house elf popped in. "I want you to dress Hermione and make her look like a lady. Then move all these…clothes if you can call them that into storage." Hermione opened her month to say something, but Draco's mother looked at her as if she were her own child "A lady never leaves her mouth open. Close it and get ready." With that Hermione shut her mouth and allowed Olivia to make her a lady.

It took forever to please Draco's mother once she had the dress on. The woman redid her hair, nails, make-up and jewelry six times before finding the right fit, all the while chit chatting about things like where Hermione would love to travel to, what her dreams were of a perfect wedding, what kind of life she dreamed of and all kinds of things about how to be a lady. In a way she enjoyed it and kind of wished her mum had taken the time to dress her up and talk about her dreams. Her mother had always been wonderful; she just never got into the dressing up like Narcissa did.

"Now we'll go tell Draco were off and be on are way…Did you say you wished to go to China?" The woman asked as she and Hermione were walking down the halls to Draco office.

"As long as I can remember I've wanted to walk on the Great Wall and under it once I found out there was a hug Wizarding city hidden there." She smiled a bit.

"Oh Tan Gong Fu is a beautiful city. Back when Draco was still in my belly, my husband and I couldn't agree on what to name him. We had found out it was a boy, but nothing was coming to mind. My husband had business in Tan Gong Fu and decided I had to go with him. We had just entered the city when an old woman came to us asking if she could touch my belly." Narcissa smiled, shaking her head. "I allowed her to do so and as soon as she touched me, Draco kicked me for the first time. The woman looked up and said the Draco saw me coming and didn't like it." She laughed a bit, "She then walked away. I couldn't shake how she had called my baby the dragon…Later I found out she was a seer known for naming babies with just one touch. People believed she saw what the child would be when all grown up."

"So you named Draco after what she had saw he would be?" Hermione asked, stopping in front of his office door.

"The Chinese believe in seers and good luck in taking their word." She placed her hand on the door. "I guess I named him Draco because she told me to in away and because I liked the idea of my child being a powerful person. Over the years I could see that he was just what she said he would be and he gives a good swift kick to you if he knows you're coming and he doesn't like it." They both laughed, entering the office to find Ms. Ritz sitting at her desk with a nasty look on her face. "Is Draco free?"

"Yes…" The woman growled going over to Draco door knocking and opening it.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?" Draco screamed from his office, his drying out was driving a lot of people crazy. The man was on edge and pissed off just about all the time. If you looked at him funny he was liable to go off the deep end. Hermione and his mother got snapped at a lot, but he had remained calm most of the time.

"Your mother and Ms. Granger are here to see you sir," The red head said in a voice that was on the verge of a melt down. Hermione kind of felt bad for the poor woman. Having to be screamed at by a drying out drunk all day must have sucked.

"Let them in," He hissed. As they entered the room, Hermione could tell Draco wasn't sleeping well. His hair was a little messy and he looked like he got dressed in the dark. But she knew no matter how bad he looked and felt it would get better. "What is it?"

"I am taking Hermione into town to do some shopping…You're coming with us." Draco looked up, ready to snap out something, but his mother just raised a hand and point to the door. "You're driving everyone crazy, go fix yourself up. I'll take care of the rest." He sighed as she stopped. "Oh and Draco, are you still taking that trip to China? You know the one to Tan Gong Fu on business?" Draco looked a bit lost for a long time.

"Um…Yes" He said it like he wasn't sure what she was talking about. But Hermione just passed it off as all part of drying out.

"You're going to Tan Gong Fu! Oh my gods I was just telling you're mum how much I've always wanted to go there!" Hermione shouted, making Draco cringe a little.

"Well that's good and thanks for reminding me mother," Draco said as he came around his desk, looking as if he had just remember everything. "I want you to come with me Hermione…It won't be for a few weeks." He looked down at his desk. "I've got a lot of stuff I can't get out of…That won't interrupt your planning for your wedding, will it?"

"No... I've decided to wait until after the baby is born to get married. I have some things I need to think about," She said, not noticing how big the smile on his face got or the like his mother gave him. Once alone Hermione helped Draco fix himself up. "You know I'm glade I listened to your mum," She said as she fixed his robe.

"About what?" Draco asked, taking his tie off feeling a bit stuffy.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" They looked at one another for a moment before Hermione fixed his hair. "When your mum and I were getting all the booze out of the house I told her I wasn't going to tell Mike about what happened." She stepped back to look at him "She told me if I plan to make it work with him we shouldn't hide things from each other. She said she would even be there if I wanted when I told Mike what happened. I of course said no thanks…Anyway after Mike asked me; I knew what your mum said was true so I had to tell him what happened."

"So…You told him, and had that big fight and ended up in the hall because my mum told you not to hide things from the man you plan to marry?" Draco asked as if putting some unseen puzzle together.

"Um, kind of yeah," She said, wondering what she was missing. Draco smiled brightly looking her over.

"I just noticed how beautiful you look today…Did my mum dress you up or something, I mean not to say you couldn't look so stunning on your own, it just seems to me you look very…" Hermione cut him off.

"Lady Malfoy like?" She asked and he nodded. "Yeah your mother came into my bedroom, saw what I was wearing and just said nope as long as you're in this house with my grandchild in you you're going to look like one of us." She laughed. "It's why we're going shopping. My clothes were junk according to her." They both laughed as Draco offered her his arm.

"That's my mum for you, when she wants something she lets you know one way or another," Hermione smiled as they walked out to meet his mother and headed to the car. Everything was just so good Hermione almost forgot she had a boyfriend sitting at her apartment waiting to hear from her. There was just something about being with Draco that made her forget Mike, almost.

"I just need to send out a quick letter then we can go," She said, stopping at the front door to be given what she needed. With a short note that said 'I need some time to rethink our relationship. The wedding's off until at least after the baby is born', she sent it out and joined the Malfoy's in the car. She had a great time with them going from shop to shop, looking at everything.

Draco's mother had run into someone she knew and said she'd meet up with them later, leaving the two alone outside a baby toy store. The two decided to go in and look around. Once in the store, Hermione found the cutest baby car/broom set with little toy animals hanging off it. "Oh Draco, look at this!" She said, holding it up. He came over to look it over with her. "There's even a type of rattle… It's so perfect!" She said, looking up at him. He nodded, taking it to the register. The two smiled at the clerk.

"Someone having a baby soon?" The woman asked as she looked it over.

"Yes, we are," Hermione said without thinking. The woman looked up and at them for a long moment.

"That's real nice…You two been together long?" She asked, ringing them up.

"You could say that" Draco said, taking the car/broom seat in one hand and paying for it in the other. They then left the shop, found Narcissa and went back to the manor to unpack. Nothing really exciting happened for the rest of that day. However, the next day when Hermione got her newspaper she just about died. There was a photo of her and Draco walking down the street with his mother and the baby car/broom set. The title read 'Granger to have Malfoy's baby!'

She read it to find out the clerk had said they told her they had been together a long time and were having a baby! She want to die, because up until right then other than the Malfoys, Mike, her parents and herself NO one in the wizarding world knew she was having his baby, not even her two best friends. 'They're going to die when they see this!'