Chapter Ten

Hermione groggily opened the window and let the owl in. The owl swooped out of the room, left her Daily Prophet on her kitchen table how she like it, and then came back to her and patiently waited as she put in the money. The owl was gone and she slammed the window down. She looked at her bed longingly but decided on a shower instead.

She was finally going to paint her flat and make it look like a person actually lived there. She came out of the shower, put on her cat charm and pulled on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt. She wandered into the kitchen and made a cup of tea. Finally she was ready to sit down and start her morning. She took a sip of tea, picked up the paper and immediately spit it back out, sending it spraying across the table and the paper.

"Bloody hell!"

Meanwhile at the Malfoy Manor

Draco heard the insistent knocking at his bedroom door. He finally groaned and got up. He put on his robe and opened the door. His father stood there with a paper in his hand. "Draco you have to see this."

Draco took the paper and walked in his room and sat in a chair by the window. He jumped up when he saw the paper, "You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

New Delegate Malfoy and War Hero Granger Doing Unspeakable Things

By Rita Skeeter

Your's truly has it from a very reliable source that the fallen, but again rising Draco Malfoy, and the perfect Hermione Granger have been having a sordid affair.

Word is the new delegate to the International Wizard Confederation Malfoy, and Unspeakable, Granger, have been seeing each other for four months now. Mr. Malfoy thanked Miss Granger during his acceptance speech, for and I quote, "Believing in me and helping me become the man that I am today, and I thank you especially for supporting me."

The question in my mind is he going to support her and the happy little bundle they have coming? When I asked her ex-boyfriend Ron Weasley how he felt about their relationship he responded, "I think he's just using her for her blood-status, to get sympathy. Eventually Hermione will see that and leave him." He then muttered something about a baby and I realized he knew more to the story.

Finally he confessed, "She's pregnant, about six months along." That's right folks, do the math, Granger and Malfoy conceived their love child when she was still publicly with Weasley. Then we got this picture from our photographer of Miss Granger tenderly touching her abdomen, (See below).

However, if you notice, her stomach is flat. Is Mr. Malfoy trying to keep their tryst a secret from the world and is making her use a charm to flatten her stomach?

I don't know about you, but I don't know I want someone with such loose morals representing our country in the IWC. Hopefully he will do what is right and marry Miss Granger, blood-status or not.

Draco saw the picture and it was Hermione touching her abdomen, and he remembered her doing it right after she saw Ron. He started to studied his son carefully. "Draco?"

Draco threw the paper down. "Not one word of this is true! She took that quote by me out of context, the rest of that sentence is supposed to be 'in my act and in my appointment.' She is making it sound like I was thanking her for all of these personal reasons. And the beginning was me thanking your and Mother. As for this so called baby, it's Weasley's! And it's not Hermione that is pregnant, but Luna. And I would never use Hermione for her blood-status, we are trying to get this damned community away from all of it. I care about her as a person and would never use her like that, never."

He sat with his face in his hands. In a very muffled voice, Lucius heard him ask, "What am I supposed to do about this, Father?"

Lucius knew he was talking about the woman not the situation. Lucius sat cautiously at the end of the bed and faced Draco. "I can't tell you how to live your life Draco. I think admitting to Hermione how you feel about her is a step in the right direction. As far as everything that Rita said, I personally will be going to see her and Harry has already volunteered to get a correct statement out of the charming Mr. Weasley. I suggest you go see Hermione, because if I know her, she's throwing things in her flat right now."

Back at Hermione's Flat

She threw the slow globe as hard as she could. It shattered against the wall. "REPARO!" She screamed, it flew back together and back into her hand and she threw it again. She heard a knock at the door. Hermione stomped to the door and threw it open. Draco stood there with a concerned look on his face. He wore jeans and a black t-shirt. His hair was messy, and it immediately calmed Hermione down. She had never seen him so, well, not put together.

She smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone yet."

Draco stepped over the snow globe and shoved his hands in his pocket. She repaired the snow globe and it flew back to her hands again. She held it up to the light. "Ron gave me this when I graduated from Hogwarts."

She walked calmly into the kitchen and opened the trash and dropped it in. She shut it and turned to Draco with a bright smile on her face and hands on her hips. "So what do I owe this pleasure?"

Draco caught sight of a shredded paper under the kitchen table. "I was going to ask if you had read the Daily Prophet today."

The smile faded and she laughed a hallow laugh. "Which part? The part that Ron told everyone you were using me for my blood-status, or that I was pregnant? Or how about the part where she said that your morals were loose? The nerve of that woman! The sad thing is that Ron probably told her that Luna was the one that was pregnant and she decided she would get more reads by saying it was me pregnant instead of letting the world know what Ron did to me. She knows that we don't have a real relationship, and she knows that we probably aren't going to be seen together after the gala, which means she gets to publish more stories about us. Rita knows how to read people, and we just gave her a goldmine."

Draco frowned. "No, we didn't. Let's play the part. We will obviously deny the pregnancy part, and the part that we were seeing each other when you and Ron were together, but let's prove her wrong."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting that we mislead Rita?"

Draco laughed, "I'm saying lets make her look like a bloody fool."

Hermione lazily flicked her wand and cleaned up the mess under her table and then looked at Draco with a smirk on her face, "What do you say about dinner?"