Hi, I'm back with a new chapter. Thank you for all your feedback and comments as I really do appreciate it and I find it helps motivate me to get on with the next chapter.
Please let me know what you think of this chapter.
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Chapter 11
Lucius knew exactly what his friend was trying to do. And damn it if it wasn't working. The thought that his child half blood or not would have Harry Potter as father figure was untenable. The child would not have anything to do with the Potter brat or the ever increasing Weasley's he would make sure of that. If the child was left to his mother's devices then he would probably end up in merlin forbid Gryffindor. No Malfoy half blood or not had in the past or nor would they in the future if he had his way would go into any house other than Slytherin.
The child was his flesh and blood, so what if he shared the mudblood's genes, his Malfoy genes had bred through and true and you would never be able to tell who his mother is by looking at him. The boy was a Malfoy, he looked exactly as Draco had when he had been younger, maybe a bit more livelier from what he had witnessed in the memories but there was ample time to teach the boy how to go about himself as a proper wizard. He had to wonder at his future self, marrying a mudblood, having a halfblood child and then not even raising the boy in the proper wizarding manner.
He would offer to take the child from the mudblood. After all from what he had seen in the memories she had seemed distressed and probably wouldn't be too upset at handing him over to Lucius to raise. He would of course compensate the mudblood and again a vow of silence on this matter would be required.
" I have thought on this Severus and you may be correct, the child is a Malfoy and it may be best if I take him on and he comes's and resides with me at the manor. I will pay a call to the mudblood this afternoon and make the arrangements, you will of course provide me with the address." Lucius finished and looked at Severus expectantly.
Severus looked at his friend in disbelief. Surely even Lucius wasn't as disillusioned to believe that Miss Granger would give up her child for monetary gain. Miss Granger wasn't likely to let Lucius within a yard of the child so how Lucius thought to persuade her to hand over the child into Lucius's custody beggared belief. He had no intention of letting Lucius have access to the child until his friend regained his senses.
"I will speak to Miss Granger Lucius, I believe that would serve best in this situation.
Miss Granger will not just hand her child over, you know this too Lucius. What mother do you know would sell her child and agree to sever all contact. I will speak to Miss Granger and arrange for you to meet and discuss this situation"
" She is a mudblood, they do not care for their children as w..."
"Lucius have you learned nothing since the war my friend. Miss Granger is a bleeding heart Gryffindor, she will fight tooth and nail for her child. For any child. Miss Granger has the advantage in this, she has custody of the child, your son. She has the saviour of the world the annoying one in her corner. Miss Granger also has the minister of magic Kingsley's ear and they are not just employee and employer, I know Kingsley thinks of her as a friend. The wizarding world calls her heroine for her efforts in the war. If you do not handle this with your normal sense and cunning then you will lose." Severus finished and looked at his friend to see if his friend understood the need for caution in this. The Malfoy name a few years ago may have got Lucius through quite a few doors but since the war those same doors were now closed.
Lucius looked at his friend and knew he was speaking in his best interest but it galled him that his normal cool logic had failed him. But the thought of having sired a child with a mudblood had thrown his world off kilter but that was no excuse. Now more than ever he would need to use his cunning to gain the upper hand in this. Yes Severus was speaking sense but he had no intention of waiting for Severus to speak to the mudblood, he would go about in his own way in dealing with this. But he would let Severus believe that he agreed with him, not that Severus couldn't be trusted but when it came to the mudblood Severus was soft due to her saving his life. Saving a wizards life created a bond whether you want said bond or not and Lucius knew Severus and he would do all he could to protect the mudblood.
In the memories from the pensieve he recalled the fear in her eyes during the encounter in the book store. Maybe bribery wouldn't work but some good old fashioned fear might do the trick.
" As ever you are correct Severus. I wasn't thinking clearly, I will wait for you to speak to the mudblood. Soon though Severus I am not prepared to wait long on this" Lucius finished smoothly.
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Hermione was exhausted, she had been shopping all day with Sebastian and she can honestly say she had never been as mentally and physically drained as this. Sebastian was fascinated by everything and had numerous questions that did not stop. She hated shopping normally but today had been particularity horrific. They had so many bags of shopping and thank merlin for magic as it made it easier to spell the bags smaller and stick the shopping bags in her trusted handbag.
Hermione was stood outside her parents house with Sebastian and was building up the courage to push the doorbell. She was really anxious on how to explain this to her parents, things still hadn't settled since her parents memories had been restored so she knew this was likely to send her parents over the cliff so to speak.
"Mummy why aren't we going in? Grampa and grandma are waiting for us. Hurry" Sebastian whined. It had made things easier when she had questioned Sebastian earlier to learn that her parents and Sebastian in the future are really close. According to Sebastian he spent every Thursday at his grandparents house and every few weekends her parents would take him on outings in the muggle world.
" Sebastian do you remember what I told you earlier?"
" ah huh, I have to sit quietly in the TV room while you talk to grampa and grandma."
"Good boy" Hermione bent down and hugged Sebastian. He really was adorable. She couldn't help but love him even when he was asking endless questions. Now she knew what her parents and teachers had felt like.
Hermione pushed the doorbell and waited for her mum to answer. Her dad wouldn't move from in front of TV when the cricket was on.
" Hermione so goo... you bought a guest?" Hermione's mum looked at her in question.
" Grandma" Sebastian squealed let go of his mummy's hand and ran up the stairs to the front door to hug his grandma round her legs.
Helen looked at the child then at her daughter in confusion. " Just go with it and I will explain everything I promise" Hermione whispered to her mum and pleaded with her eyes.
" Sebastian why don't you let go of your grandma so that we can make our way in the house" Hermione untangled her son from her mothers legs and walked into the house.
Sebastian ran into the house straight into the TV room and Hermione could hear him shout "Grampa, did you miss me". Hermione ran into the room and saw her son had climbed onto her fathers lap on the sofa and was hugging him with his head resting on her fathers shoulders. Her father looked dumbfounded and looked at Hermione.
" Daddy I need to speak to you and mum in the kitchen now. Sebastian let go of your grandpa." Sebastian untangled himself from his grandpa and looked at his grandma and said "Grandma I'm hungry. May I have a snack please?"
" Sebastian can you wait a few minutes and then we will get you some food it's nearly time for supper anyway. Why don't you wait here and play with spiderman and we will back shortly". Hermione fished the spiderman toy that they had bought earlier out of her handbag and handed it to her son.
She made her way in to the kitchen and sat down at the table waiting for her parents to join her. Her stomach was doing somersaults and she really felt like she was going to be sick.
Her mum and dad came and sat and finally her dad seemed to have found his voice and asked " Care to tell us what's going on Hermione?"
She looked at her parents and burst into tears. She didn't know who was more shocked her or her parents. Hermione had always protected her parents from the goings on in her life from all the many mishaps, adventures and the war Hermione had always kept her parents protected by keeping the truth from them. No matter how low she had felt returning home during the summer holidays she had always kept her emotions hidden from her parents as she was always worried if she told them the truth they would be frightened of the wizarding world and she did not want then to be scared of a world she loved after finding somewhere where she finally felt like she belonged.
Even after the trauma of her fifth year getting cursed by Dolohov in the department of mysteries and then Sirius dying she had all kept it within herself so the fact that she was now crying and at the same time stammering out the truth of Sebastian and how he came to be in her world was surprising to her as the Hermione of old would never have told her parents the truth.
As soon as Hermione had started crying Helen had made her way round to the table to comfort her daughter, what she was hearing though was shocking. A grandchild from the future. Whoever heard of such a thing, she felt like she was in an episode of Doctor Who. But it must be true as her Hermione wasn't one for tall tales and did it really matter that he was from the future, this was her grandchild and he was so cute the way he had hugged her and greeted her when they had first met at the front door. It gladdened her heart to know that the child, no his name was Sebastian recognised her and clearly they were close and he must be a regular visitor to their home as he seemed both comfortable and happy to be his grandparents presence.
Evan Granger looked at his daughter in surprise, at first when the child had appeared he was sure there had been a mistake and the child had mistook him for someone else. But then Hermione had walked in a few seconds later and she hadn't corrected the child he had gotten a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. And to now hear his daughter his little angel telling him about a grandchild from the future. He was trying to get his head round it but it was difficult for him to think when his daughter was so upset.
"Hermione hush sweetheart, it's OK. We'll figure this out" Helen was doing her best to calm her daughter. Hermione hadn't been this upset since her cousin Joanne had told her she didn't want Hermione as her flower girl as she had decided ask her fiancé's sister instead. Hermione had been so upset and nothing you could say or do would comfort her.
After a few more minutes Hermione collected herself and took a deep breath and stopped crying. She walked over to sink and washed her face.
After drinking a few sips of the tea her mum had made her she got up and looked in on Sebastian who was fortunately engrossed on his game of spiderman. He had also built a mini fort between the sofa and table with the cushions and the throw from the sofa.
Hermione walked back to the kitchen and looked at her parents and nodded her head at them for them to fire away with the no doubt numerous questions they had.
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12 Grimmauld place
Harry was annoyed, he had spent the afternoon at the Weasley's and he was glad to be away from them and back home now. Mrs Weasley had gotten onto her favourite topic of Hermione and he had to bite his tongue at certain points this afternoon from snapping at the woman he had come to regard as his second mother. And then Ron had started on at how Hermione was too stuck up and thought she was too good for the Weasley's and that's why she wouldn't go out with Ron. Mrs Weasley had of course wholeheartedly agreed with Ron and then they had preceded to rip Hermione to shreds. Mr Weasley had tried to intervene but had been talked over by his formidable wife.
Harry had finally had enough and when he had stuck up for Hermione Ginny had gotten upset and asked him if he was sleeping with Hermione. What the hell was it with the Weasley's and their obsession with him sleeping with Hermione. That was preposterous to him, Hermione was his sister and he was fed up with people making assumptions about them. After Ginny had started Ron had then accused him of betraying him and their friendship. Mrs Weasley had then stuck her two knuts in and said not to blame Harry and that it was Hermione and her muggle whiles and that muggleborns were a lot more easier with their affections than witches who were born into a wizarding family.
Like seriously how was that not as bad as some of the spiel that the deatheaters had spouted. Harry had left at that point and flooed home. He had also reset the floo and the wards not to let Ginny, Ron or Mrs Weasley in. He had finally had enough with Ginny and her demands and her disrespect towards Hermione. Was it too much to ask for an easy life after the war. So engrossed was he in his musings he hadn't noticed Severus Snape was sitting in the armchair across the drawing room with a book and a tray of tea on the far side of the drawing room.
Severus for his part was enjoying the fact that the brat that lived hadn't noticed his presence and was huffing around the room like a child. With great enjoyment he cleared his throat and said " Good evening Mr Potter". Harry jumped up from the sofa he had just thrown his self across and pointed his wand in the direction of the voice that had interrupted his thoughts.
"Profess.. Sorry Headmaster Snape, what are you doing here?" Harry was really annoyed and slightly embarrassed to be caught off guard by his former nemesis.
" I am here to see Miss Granger, I take it she and the child weren't with you?"
"Hermione has gone to see her parents, not sure when she will be back"
" Ah well I shall wait for her return. You may go about your business Potter I do not require you to keep me entertained.
Harry was really annoyed now, "This is my house so anything that goes on here is my business".
" As you say Potter" With that Severus took a sip of his tea and returned to his book as if Harry wasn't there.
Harry stood there not knowing how to react but then had a chuckle to himself. Typical Snape.
"Something amusing Mr Potter?"
" Er nothing sir. Just hungry, I was meant to have tea at the Weasley's but had to leave without eating. I'm going to get some take out,fish and chips, would you like me to get you something?" At this Severus sneered and Harry chuckled and said " I'll be back in a few, make yourself at home sir". With that Harry left the room.
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Malfoy Manor
Lucius Malfoy had been waiting patiently for the clock to strike 6pm. For that is when Severus did his walk around the grounds of Hogwarts before he joined the students in the hall for dinner. That is when he knew the Headmaster's office would be empty.
As much faith as he had in Severus he could not leave his future in the hands of another man to sort. He himself must deal with this situation. So what if he had agreed to let Severus deal with this, he had warned Severus he was not prepared to wait long. It wasn't his fault Severus hadn't questioned the period of time he classed as long was hours rather than days.
He wouldn't have Severus warn the mudblood and give her ample warning and time to prepare. He wanted her caught off guard. He wanted all the advantage to be on his side.
"Father, what are you doing here" Draco called from the doorway of his study.
"This is my house is it not, this is my study last time I looked. Why would you be surprised by my presence here. And is that any way to greet your father Draco?" Lucius retuned.
"Good evening father. Now what are you doing here? Don't you normally have dinner at your club on a Friday? That is why I am surprised" Draco answered his father.
" I am off to see Severus as I have some business to deal with. A situation has come to light that I will need to appraise you of. You will make yourself available at 3pm tomorrow in my study and..."
" But its Saturday tomorrow and I have plans with Blaise, Theo an..."
" Do not interrupt me Draco. Where are your manners boy, I spent plenty of galleons on your etiquette lessons. Nice to see it was money well spent. You will be here tomorrow at 3pm. I'm sure the delightful company of Mr Zabini and Mr Nott can wait for an hour." Lucius ordered.
Merlin his father was a miserable sod at times. You'd think getting laid would help his moods and would cheer him up but no he can be a right arse at times. He knew his father had been doing the rounds since the divorce and and years before as well with the pureblood bimbos on offer, his father was getting more than he was so why he had to go round trying to ruin Draco's Saturday.
"Of course father, as you command father. I will be there 3pm at your study tomorrow" Draco finished sarcastically.
Lucius looked at his son and decided not to address his son's sarcasm, he had to get on with his evening as planned. With a nod at his son he flood to the headmaster's office.
Instead of stepping out of the floo when he arrived at the Severus's office he reached for some floo powder on the side of the fire place and flooed to his next destination.
With a smirk he called "12 Grimmauld place."
