JK Rowling owns everything
I breathed in deeply between sobs but this only made me hiccup loudly, I groaned in frustration.
My friendship with Malfoy had become incredibly important to me and the idea of losing it hit me hard. The thought of losing Teddy however, was unbareable. How was I going to tell Malfoy? I had to tell him, I had to break the friendship off until I had offical adoptive rights of Teddy. I could do this.
I stood up and made my way to the bathroom, looking in the mirror at my mascara smudged face and red eyes, I sighed. I moved into Teddy's room and looked at his sleeping form, Moony was tucked firmly under his arm and he was smiling in his sleep. I had to do this, for Teddy.
I sent a patronus to Malfoy asking him to come over. His reply was almost instantaneous and a knock on the door followed shortly after the patronus.
My breath caught as I opened the door, he was wringing wet. His light blue shirt clung to him like a second skin and I couldn't help admiring his muscular form. All those years playing seeker (albeit poorly) had done him some serious favours. I looked up when I heard him chuckle.
"Take a picture it'll last longer" he smirked and I blushed.
"I would, but the flash scares animals," I replied quickly with a grin. He laughed out loud and I quickly noted it was the first time he had done so. I liked his laugh I realised and just like that I knew I couldn't lose him either.
"Why are you so wet?" I asked and he gestured behind him at the pouring rain.
"No I mean, you're a wizard couldn't you transfigure an umbrella?" I asked laughing.
"I was in a muggle area when it started to rain, I think an umbrella appearing out of no where would have been cause for concern don't you?" I smiled and opened the door wider to let him in. Once inside he cast a drying charm on himself and his clothes and then sat down on the sofa. His arm casually draped over the back, a smirk on his face. Taking in my expression however, both his smirk and his arm dropped.
"You had your meeting today," he said slowly. I nodded and made my way over to the sofa, sitting awkwardly on the end.
"It didn't go well," he stated as though it was fact and he didn't need confirmation.
"A complaint has been made against me, through all the proper channels, I'm under heavy scrutiny. Mr Lightbody thinks if I cut all ties with you everything else should be fine," I said the last sentence extremely quickly. Malfoy's eyes flashed with hurt but he nodded slowly and went to stand up.
"I understand." He said quickly, the formal quality to his voice that he had had before we knew eachother had returned. I reached out and grabbed his hand, preventing him from leaving.
"Granger. Don't make this harder than it has to be," he spat. It wasn't his tone of voice that made me drop his hand but the use of my surname.
"I didn't..." I said but he interrupted me again as he pulled open the front door.
"I get that you would choose Teddy over me I do, but I didn't think you'd ever just drop me like I meant nothing to you."
"I didn't..." I tried again, realising I had never said anything of the sort and that I hadn't even decided what I wanted when I told him what had happened.
"I get it," he snapped. "I'm just deatheater scum," and with one last glance back at me he slammed the front door behind him and disapperated with a pop.
I sat back on the sofa in shock. I heard Teddy begin to cry in the other room, the door obviously having woken him. I slid off the sofa and into his room. He immediately stopped crying as I approached him and lifted him out of his cot, holding him close to me and kissing his sandy coloured hair that had recently started curling to match mine. As I bustled around the apartment getting food for Teddy I kept seeing the look on Malfoy's face. The recognisable hurt before the mask of indifference. Tears welled in my eyes but I blinked hard and bought my focus back to Teddy. If Malfoy wasn't even mature enough to stay and talk about it then I didn't need him. I placed Teddy's bowl in front of him almost tipping it down him as a knock at the door startled me. My heart lept, maybe it was Malfoy coming back to apologise.
"I knew you couldn't stay aw..." I trailed off as I saw that it was in fact not Malfoy but a young girl with bright yellow hair.
"Hi I'm Lisa Turpin, I'm here for your inspection," the girl smiled brightly.
"Oh of course, you were in Ravenclaw weren't you?" The girl's smile broadened until she resembled the Cheshire cat in Alice in wonderland. I stepped back to let her come in.
"Mumma," I walked over to Teddy and picked him out of his highchair.
"Did you finish all that by yourself, you're such a good boy," I smiled kissing him on the side of the head. "Say hi to Lisa Teddy,"
"Hi," he shrieked. Lisa cooed affectionately as I placed him on his playmat and gestured for Lisa to sit. She looked slightly uncomfortable and kept tapping her clipboard nervously.
"Is Malfoy here?" I looked at her in shock, my eyes wide.
"No?" I said in confusion.
"I'm supposed to check, I'm so sorry it's just the Wizengamot wanted me to see if you still had ties to him and I just didn't know how to ask." She blushed scarlet and scribbled something on her clipboard.
"I was told to break off my friendship with him or I could lose Teddy. Teddy is the most important thing in my life, I couldn't risk that," I sighed sadly. Realising I may have bared a little too much of my soul to the almost complete stranger in front of me. She cocked her head to the side slightly before writing something on her clipboard.
After a short Q and A session the inspection passed as normal, Lisa looked around the apartment asked a few final clarifying questions and then left.
Once she had left Teddy became impatient, frustrated that I hadn't played with him all day he threw his barbie at my head when I tried to join him on his mat. When bathtime came around he threw an almighty temper tantrum and refused to cooperate. I groaned in frustration, after 30 minutes of this charade I cast a quick cleaning charm on him and tucked him into bed.
I felt as though I had had a day with the dementors when I finally got into bed and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
A/N: It has been months. I don't have an excuse except some serious writers block. Better late than never though right? Thanks for everyones really nice reviews over the past months, they've definitely helped to inspire the update. I know the chapters short but I will be updating tomorrow as well to make up for it.
I hope you don't hate me too much for this chapter. It will get better for Hermione I promise.