Chapter Eight: The Weird Letter

When Draco arrived back at home, it was close to six in the evening. Hermione was waiting patiently for him, reading another book on birthing styles.

"Hello good lookin'!" Draco called from the entryway. Hermione looked up at him from her book and beamed.

"You sound happy," she said, setting her book down and standing up to greet him. Draco shrugged, closing the door behind him.

"It's always fun to hang out with Blaise. How'd everything go today with you?" Hermione gave him a look. "Not so good, huh?"

"Well, Ginny told me she and Blaise have been… um… you know… without any kind of insurance…" Hermione finished, smirking slightly. Draco wrinkled his brow.

"Really? Blaise said he'd been using a contraceptive spell- but he can do some wandless magic, so maybe Ginny didn't know or something…" Draco pulled Hermione into a hug, and then kissed her forehead.

"He should probably let her know- she's worried about it." Hermione snuggled into his warmth.

"I'll send him an owl later tonight then," Draco suddenly hoisted Hermione into his arms and charged upstairs. "But first I have some business to attend to!"

(…)

January seemed to come extremely quickly for Hermione and Draco. Hermione was officially nine months pregnant on January third, and her stomach had swelled to what she referred to as 'a giant pumpkin'. Draco was hard pressed to hide his enthusiasm, which helped fuel the reporters knocking on their door and calling them all hours of the night. People were screaming about the baby's name, sex, and why the hell hadn't Draco proposed to the girl yet? Despite all the chaos, Draco and Hermione managed to live quite contently- until one little piece of mail.

Draco had left early in the morning for practice, so Hermione had plopped herself down on the large, comfy couch to read about baby names. The normal twenty or so owls flew in with letters from nosy witches and wizards asking rude questions about Hermione and Draco's personal life and their baby. Out of the particular owls that flew in, only one of them seemed to look slightly different to Hermione. Usually she just left them all alone until lunchtime, where she would unceremoniously toss them into the fire, unopened. The letter that caught her eye was not like the usual post- this one had a stamp on it.

"It couldn't possibly…" Hermione thought aloud as she tore the letter open. She hadn't heard anything from her parents since the night she and Draco told them about their baby. Shaking slightly, Hermione read the letter.

Dearest Draco,

I'm sure you never expected to hear from me again after everything that happened in sixth year. I'm sorry for avoiding you for so long- I have been getting your mail, I just never responded. It would have been too hard to try and explain before now. Because of everything that is going on in the news with you and your new girlfriend, I thought it be the best time to tell you. I have kept something from you for a very long time, and I don't really know how to tell you about it properly. I'm sure you remember all the wonderful, intimate times we have shared, and something even more wonderful happened because of it. We have a son together, Draco, his name is Tyler. This isn't really the type of thing that is best to tell in a letter, but I wasn't sure how you were going to react. I know that your son would love to meet you- he's just a baby still, but he deserves to have you in his life. I'm not going to ask you to leave your girlfriend, I just want you to remember everything that you and I went through, and what we have to share now. Please write me, I miss you very much.

Yours forever,

-M

"Who the fuck is 'M'!" Hermione shouted, her eyes welling up with tears. She half crumpled up the letter, throwing it as hard as she could at the wall. Clutching her swollen stomach, she let her tears fall freely and sobbed loudly.

What am I supposed to do now? I don't have anywhere to go…

Hermione was unsure what she was supposed to do next, but she knew damn well she wasn't going to stay with an evasive, manipulative man. Continuing to sob, Hermione moved as quickly as she could up the stairs and began throwing her belongings into her old school trunk. She thought for a terrified moment that the front door had opened and shut, but when she listened she heard no other movement in the house.

Just as she started dragging her trunk around the corner to the stairs, she skidded to a stop as she came face to face with Draco who was clutching the half-crumpled letter in his hand.

"What are you doing?" he asked her bluntly.

"I'm leaving." Hermione spat. Draco lifted the letter.

"Because of this?"

"No, because the house is too cold you moron. How could you not tell me about her?" Hermione finally burst. Draco stared at her silently for a moment.

"She has to be lying." Draco's voice shook. Hermione glared at him.

"How could you possibly know?"

"I just do." He said quietly.

"Well that's just wonderful. What am I supposed to do now?" Hermione through her arms in the air, tears still running down her cheeks.

"Do you really want to leave?" Draco asked, his voice cold. Hermione studied him for a few seconds.

"I don't know, Draco. I don't feel like I know anything anymore. I don't even know if I can trust you- you lied to me about her-"

"You never asked! How can I lie if you never asked?" Draco shouted.

"It's not the kind of thing you think to ask, Draco! Hey, by the way, do you have any other children by any other women? What the fuck do you expect? You should have TOLD ME!" Hermione screamed back.

"I didn't know! You knew before I did for God's sake!" Draco's voice cracked and he did something he had never done to Hermione before- he turned his back to her and walked away.

A/N: Super short chapter, I know I'm sorry! I will totally make it up to you in the next one, I promise. I've had lots of homework already, which kind of puts me in a not so creative mood. But I will definitely post a nice LOONG chapter soon, very soon! Thanks for all your wonderful reviews and support for the story. I did get a lot of feedback that the Ginny thing was not going to go over so hot, so I made sure to address that right away. I appreciate your feedback, I like to know what you want to read and what you don't want to read- as long as you are respectful about it. Please review!

-shesmyfavorite