DISCLAIMER: I hardly have enough money to pay my car insurance. I couldn't buy Harry Potter if I tried.

Chapter 12: Maybe?

Hermione was exhausted. It had taken nearly an hour to get Ginny Potter to stop bleeding, and in that time she had nearly died twice. By the time it was all said and done, there were three doctors working on Ginny, and another two on her small daughter. Hermione had to go back and forth to the supply cabinet so many times for various things that she had lost count, and after giving Ginny four blood transfusions, the doctors gave Ginny a hysterectomy in a last effort to save her life.

Hermione almost felt sorry for the red haired witch as she lay in Intensive Care, deathly pale in a medically induced coma to allow her body to heal properly. The one person she truly felt sorry for was Harry, her friend, the man who had to deal with so much in his life already. He sat diligently beside his wife, clearly petrified. Hermione watched him from the doorway, not wanting to disturb his thoughts. She had been standing there since her shift ended about forty-five minutes earlier, just to make sure Harry was alright.

He hadn't said a word to anyone since she had come to him, accompanied by Healer Geronn, to tell him the bad news. He had sunk into that same plastic chair after jumping up to see what was the matter. He asked if he could see the child, but it was too dangerous; the child was in bad shape. He asked if he could see Ginny, but he wouldn't be allowed to until she was moved to recovery. And then, for only the third or fourth time in all the years she had known Harry Potter, he cried in front of her. Hermione had cried too, mostly for the baby and the fact that Harry was crying, holding him in her arms, and letting him wet her scrub top with his tears.

Eventually, she had to go back to work, but she promised to check in on Ginny when she could. The rest of her shift, she thought only of Harry and the defeated look on his face. When she was done, Hermione rushed to change her clothes and go to Ginny's room, where she found Harry sitting with his hands clasped in his lap, his unruly black hair looking more uncontrollable than ever.

He had barely moved since she got there, and Hermione was scared to talk to him, lest he explode on her. She just couldn't shake the feeling that this was all somehow her fault.

"You know," Harry finally said, still not looking towards Hermione, "I came home tonight thinking we were going to have a nice dinner followed by a long talk. I was going to ask her about what happened with Malfoy… I was going to ask her if what I keep reading in the papers is true. You know, her being the cause of your marriage falling apart.

"I keep getting questioned about it at work, and it's gotten to the point that I can't get my work done, Hermione, because everyone wants to know about what is going on. I was going to make her tell me the truth about things once and for all. Because the truth is, Hermione, I think the papers are right. I think it was Ginny that ruined your marriage. I've been watching her the past few weeks and thinking about a few things. Every time I say something about you or Malfoy, she goes all funny. Like she is in her own little world; she gets a weird look on her face and she doesn't talk…

"The truth is, Hermione, Ginny isn't herself anymore. I don't know if it was the pregnancy that messed with her, but regardless she has changed, and not for the better." Harry put his head in his hands. "And the fact is that I don't think she wants to be with me anymore… and I don't think I can look her in the eye and not see her… with Malfoy."

"Oh Harry," Hermione exclaimed, going to him and giving him a hug. She wiped her eyes as the moisture fell down her cheeks. Looking at Harry made Hermione's heart break.

"It's not your fault, Hermione." She looked at him, confused. "About the baby, I mean. Like you said, sometimes these things happen. You go on. Go home, Hermione to your son. I'll be alright, I promise."

Hermione looked at her friend again. How could she possibly leave him here all by himself? She would be a bad friend if she did. "Harry, you can't stay here by yourself. I won't let you."

Harry shook his head. "Molly is going to come soon, I owled her before you got here. Please, Hermione, you look like you could fall asleep where you stand. Go home. For me. I'll be fine."

Hermione hesitated, still not trusting Harry to be by himself. "You're sure?" she asked. Harry smiled at Hermione and nodded his head. Hermione sighed. "Okay, goodnight then, Harry."

"Goodnight, Hermione," Harry replied. Hermione sighed once more and walked away from the room to the floo area, where she went to her house.

Something was off, she realized as she stepped from the fireplace in her dark living room, wiping the soot from her clothes. "Hello?" she called, taking her wand from her purse, "Luna? Lucas?" She turned on the nearest lamp, looking around for a sign of struggle. Nothing she could see was out of place; everything was as she had left it.

Terror cursed through her veins as she tried to figure out what could have happened to her son and friend. What if they had been killed? What if they had been kidnapped? She didn't think she could handle anything more going wrong, and she began to hyperventilate as she ran from room to room, searching for any sign of them.

Oh God. She stopped in her tracks. Draco had been right. Chev must have broke in and murdered Luna and her son! A small cry escaped her lips as she took the stairs two at a time, running past her own room to her son's, throwing the door open. The sheets were all over the floor. Luke's teddy bear was nowhere to be found. His favorite blanket was gone. Oh God! Luke had been kidnapped!

Hermione ran from his room and checked every other room, praying that Luna had just taken Lucas to her house. She would be the type not to leave a note.

Throwing open the door to her room, Hermione nearly fell to the ground in shock. There lay Draco asleep on top of the covers and on top of him laid Lucas, her baby, clearly under the covers at one point but he had kicked them off in favor of using his father as a pillow.

Hermione burst into tears, not caring whether she woke both of them up. How could he have done this to her? Making her believe that her son had been taken by some madman, or worse! "Wake up!" she exclaimed, making her way to the bed and smacking Draco's legs as hard as she could. "Wake up you son of a bitch!"

"Ouch! Damn it Hermione, what was that for?" Draco hissed when he woke, sitting up and holding Luke tightly. Luke was half awake and looked like he wasn't very happy to be so. Hermione snatched him from Draco and ignored his question, putting Lucas back in his room and shutting the door, placing a silencing charm on it. Then she made her way back to her bedroom, where Draco was now standing by the window.

The moonlight reflected off his white hair, giving it a silvery glow. "And just what in the hell do you think you are doing in my house?" she snapped, looking at her watch. "At three in the morning no less?"

When he turned, Hermione could see nothing but the outline of his features, giving him an eerie look. "I was taking care of our son," he growled, "I, unlike you, want to raise Lucas. Where in the hell were you?"

Hermione marched up to her husband and promptly slapped him across the face. "I was at work, you imbecile! Someone has to be an adult around here! And how dare you say that I don't want Lucas! He is my entire world!" How could he say that to her? She was a thousand times the parent he was! "How did you even get in my house? I thought I told you to never come here."

XXXXX

Draco shrugged. "My dear wife," he drawled, "you never told me to stay out of your house. As for how I got in, your friend Looney Lovegood invited me right in, then took James and went to her house." He had to admit that he enjoyed making Hermione mad, he thought as he saw her blush and put her hands on her hips, he liked how it made her practically crackle with fury.

She let out a growl and began pacing in front of him. "Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I got home from an eight hour shift that was hell in the first place to find that the babysitter is gone and my son is not in his bed? Do you know what I was thinking, Draco? Do you?" She was practically yelling at him as she began to wring her hands and continue pacing.

When she finally looked at him, there were tears in her eyes, and it made Draco regret being rude. He had known the whole time she was at work, and he also knew that Hermione was nothing short of the perfect mother to Luke. Damn! Why did he always say the things that would hurt the most?

Because he knew and she knew that deep down he was still an egotistical little boy.

"I thought," Hermione cried, "I thought that Lucas had been taken by that, that man that you incessantly harass me about! Or worse! I thought he may have been killed, and as I turned every single corner in this house I prepared myself to see Luna… dead… and my baby, my Lucas…" She began sobbing, hiding her head with her hands.

Draco made a motion to come towards her, but stopped short when Hermione suddenly shouted, "Do you see? Do you see what you are doing to me, Draco? I'm an emotional bloody mess, and it is all your fault! I would have been fine if you would have just stayed dead, but no! You just have to be alive. Why won't you be dead? Just go, get out of my life and never come back! I don't need you; I don't need anybody!"

It felt as if there were a lump in his throat, and he swallowed a few times quickly, blinking his eyes. God, he was such an asshole! He forgot all the words he had said to her at the therapist. He would wait forever and a day for her, just so she would stop crying! He had broken this woman, quite possibly beyond repair. How could he show that he wasn't going anywhere? That he wasn't going to leave her ever again?

He grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her towards him. "Don't touch me!" she yelled, trying to pull away. She pointed her wand at him and it looked like she was seriously considering using it. Draco didn't care. He grabbed her wand and pulled it from her hand as if it was nothing, throwing it on the floor with a small clatter. She continued struggling against him as he pulled her closer and closer until he was able to wrap his arms around her.

She stiffened against him, and he could feel her leaning against his arms, trying to break his grasp. She was still crying. "Stop it, Hermione!" he exclaimed, "Don't you see? I'm not going anywhere. I'm here, and I always will be." He felt her relax slightly against him, but her sobbing intensified. "I'm not some random person who will come and go from your life in the blink of an eye. I'm not your friends, who get angry with you over petty things. I am your husband, Hermione, your husband. And as such, I will stand by you through anything."

Hermione, at that point, was leaning against Draco's chest, sobbing a puddle into his shirt with her arms wrapped around his middle. He leaned down and gently kissed her bushy mane of hair, breathing in the scent of her. "W-why are you sa-saying this to me?" Hermione asked through her sobbing, her head still against his chest.

"Because I love you," Draco replied with a smile.

"Why?"

The question hung in the air like a fog. Why did he love her? Draco had asked himself that question on many occasions, and was never quite able to formulate a specific answer. At times, it would be because she was so damned stubborn, others it would be the way she scrunched up her nose when she laughed really hard. It wasn't anything particular; it was an accumulation of characteristics and habits that made him single her out, out of all other women in the world.

"Because you're you," he said finally, "and you're not ashamed of it like so many other people. The fact that you're not willing to change, not even for me, makes me love you all the more."

They stood in silence for a time in Hermione's dark bedroom, wrapped in each other's arms, the only light coming from the moon streaming through the large windows. Hermione slowly stopped crying, and Draco offered her his handkerchief, which she used to dry her eyes and nose. After that, they barely spoke to one another, but Draco didn't mind.

Sometimes silence said more than any of the words in the world could. He could feel her heart beating slowly and evenly as he held her against him, and as he chanced brushing her hair away from her face, she looked up at him, her bloodshot eyes scrutinizing him for a moment.

"Draco," she said slowly, and then she paused, as if battling something within herself. "Draco, I'm not going to pretend that what has happened never happened. I still believe that you slept with Ginny." Draco opened his mouth to protest, yet again, but she put a hand on his mouth to stop him. "Please, let me finish. I did some thinking, and I've decided that I will give you a chance to prove yourself to me."

Draco's heart seemed to skip a beat, but he remained quiet. "However, I have certain conditions. First, we will both continue to go to counseling. Second, you have to stop drinking or at least get control over it; it sets a bad example for Lucas, and frankly, it makes you stink like you took a shower in it. Third, I feel as though we hardly know each other. So from now on, I want us to act as if we are just beginning to see each other, and that means going on dates, getting to know each other again. And finally, even though we technically are married, there will be absolutely no physical intimacy." Hermione looked at Draco as if to dare him to contest.

"Alright," Draco said, trying without success to hide his excitement.

"Alright then," Hermione replied, as if she was conducting business. She grasped Draco's wrists and directed them towards his sides, where they fell limply, still feeling the warmth of her skin even through her clothes.

He watched as she turned away from him and walked to what he could only assume was her closet, opening it and pulling out a silky purple night gown before turning to Draco and saying, "I would thank you, Draco Malfoy, if you would kindly get out of my house."

Draco smirked as he said, "Fine then. Goodnight, Hermione Granger."

He thought he saw her smile as she turned her back to him, muttering, "Goodnight."

Grinning himself, Draco let himself out the front door. In the east he could just see the first brightening of the sky. It was going to be a glorious day; he could feel it in his bones. When he reached the sidewalk, he paused to look up at the light coming from Hermione's bedroom. "Sleep well," he whispered before beginning to whistle as he walked down the street.

XXXXX

Chevalier Allin watched from his hiding place in the dining room of the muggles who lived across the street from Hermione Granger Malfoy as her husband, dreaded Draco Malfoy, let himself out and began walking down the street whistling a ridiculous tune. He glared at the man he had once considered to be his friend – but that was years ago and thankfully he had gotten smarter – and considered whether or not he should kill him.

After all, he was supposed to be dead in the first place… those men he hired were supposed to have done the job, leaving no trace of Draco Malfoy. His plans were falling into place perfectly until Malfoy showed up like Jesus risen from the dead. Chev watched as the blond man turned a corner and disappeared from view.

Damn. He should have killed him.

He had never particularly cared for Draco Malfoy. He had been a selfish boy when he met him, and from the looks of things he hadn't changed too much. His wife, on the other hand, well, she seemed like the type who would do anything for anyone. It would almost be a shame to watch her die at his hands. Almost.

Above him, he heard the muggles stir. He remained silent and absolutely still until he heard the sound of the toilet flushing. Then, breathing a sigh of relief, he turned his attention back to the house across the street. It would be too bad if he had to kill the muggles in the house; it would give him up, and he knew that Malfoy would protect his family like a mother bear protects her cubs.

Her bedroom light had gone out. Now would be the perfect time to do it… but no, he would wait. He would wait until the woman paying him handsomely said it was time. The fact that she was paying him one hundred thousand galleons was enough for him to wait for the moon to fall from the sky, let alone kill Hermione Granger Malfoy.

He had to admit, though, that he didn't particularly want to kill her. When they met that day in the hotel in Diagon Alley, he found her to be a rather charming witch. Other than her extremely puffy hair, he found her to be an attractive woman. Maybe, before he killed her and that brat of hers, he would get some fun from the situation.

Yes, he thought with a smile, he would do just that.

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A/N: Yay for the quick update! I'm rather impressed with myself. What is going to happen next?

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