Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling nor do I own Harry Potter. See previous chapters.
Last time:
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you the whole story. But first we see Sophie."
Chapter 13
"How am I supposed to get in?" Hermione asked as she followed Draco down the hall.
"I changed the charms so that the room will recognize your magical signature. You'll be able to see the door even if others can't."
"So basically, it's as if a secret keeper told me where Sophie was."
"Exactly."
oOoOoOoOo
"Hermione!"
Hermione almost fell over when Sophie launched herself in her arms as soon as they entered the suite.
"Why didn't you come visit me? Didn't I tell you to come visit? I got lots of new toys! C'mon, I'll show you," Sophie said excitedly, pulling on Hermione's hand.
"Slow down, Izzy," Draco admonished. "I got her to come here but you wouldn't want to scare her off by being demanding would you?"
Sophie let go of Hermione's hand and ran behind her towards Draco. "Thanks Drake!" she exclaimed giving Draco a hug. "Now I have a new friend and I promise I will never cry again. Never, never."
"Uh huh," Draco laughed, ruffling Sophie's hair as she let go to run back to Hermione.
"Izzy?" Hermione asked Draco.
"My nickname for her. Short for Isabella."
"C'mon Hermione, I want to show you my room," Sophie declared, pulling Hermione into her bedroom.
Inside was nothing short of every little girl's dream room. Everything was pink – from the light pink walls to the frilly bedspread to the large closet down to another couch and the cushions on the window seat. What got Hermione's attention was the beautiful mural on one of the walls of a princess in a garden with the castle in the background and the large bookshelf right beside it.
"You sure have a lot of books Sophie," Hermione observed.
"I love stories. My brother reads to me most of the time but he's starting to teach me how to read," Sophie said excitedly.
"That's great Sophie," Hermione said still reeling from the thought of Malfoy teaching a little girl to read. "I like to read too."
"Maybe you could read to me sometime."
"I'd like that," Hermione smiled.
"Let's go see my dolls."
oOoOoOoOo
Sophie had so much stuff to show Hermione, she didn't notice the time fly by. A couple of hours later, an exhausted Sophie fell asleep on Draco's lap, who was sitting on the couch the whole time enjoying the sight of Hermione being dragged from point A to point B. Hermione herself collapsed on the other couch. She watched as Draco gently fixed Sophie's rumpled dress and swept her hair from her face. The sight somewhat unnerved Hermione – Draco Malfoy seemed almost…human.
Malfoy must've felt her staring at him because he looked up and cleared his throat.
"She usually has a nap at this time of the day," He explained. "I should bring her to bed."
From the couch Hermione watched Draco carry Sophie to her bedroom and tuck her into bed.
Who knew Malfoy could be something other than a prick.
Draco walked out of the room and into the little kitchen.
"Do you want anything to drink?" He asked, opening up the fridge.
"Some water would be nice thanks," Hermione replied.
Draco brought over 2 water bottles, handed one to Hermione and sat down on the opposite couch. A few moments of silence followed as Hermione drank.
"I hope she wasn't too much today. Sophie can be a handful," Draco said trying to fill the awkward silence.
"No, she's a lovely girl."
More silence.
"I suppose you want to hear the story now, huh?"
Hermione nodded.
"Frankly, I don't know where to start," Draco said, running a hand through his hair.
"Why don't you start from the beginning."
oOoOoOoOo
"Contrary to popular belief, my mother and father loved each other," Draco began. "But my father's devotion to the Dark Lord came between them."
"When the Dark Lord fell, Mother was overjoyed. I was a year old then and she saw it as another chance to start over as a real family. At first, Father was depressed and disappointed but eventually, things went back to the way they were between them before the Dark Lord entered the picture. Father was always cold and distant to me growing up, but it wasn't because he was inherently evil. It was just the Malfoy way. Malfoy men did not show affection because it's a sign of weakness and teaching your son affection would make him weak. Despite that, I could see that he loved my mother. Mother tried to make up for it when my father went away on business trips. She tried to show me she loved me in her own way but I was too stubborn to see it. I was a Malfoy and I wanted to be just like my father – just like him and all the other great Malfoy men before him."
Hermione thought she heard a trace of bitterness in the last sentence but didn't comment. Draco continued.
"The day Mother found out she was pregnant with Sophie was the day our idyllic life, if you could call it that, started to unravel."
oOoOoOoOo
Narcissa looked at the pink glow that surrounded her flat stomach.
"A daughter!" she thought. "Oh how exciting!"
She spent the rest of the day planning an extravagant dinner to tell Lucius the news…
"Cissa! I have great news!" Lucius called out when Narcissa met him as he entered the front door.
"I have exciting news as well," Narcissa beamed. "You first."
"You'll never guess who is going to Hogwarts with Draco in September."
"Who, darling?"
"Harry Potter!"
Narcissa's face fell as she realized what this meant. She tried to keep her composure and established her cool mask. "Who?"
"Potter! You know, that nasty little runt who reduced the Dark Lord to nothing," Lucius explained as they headed towards the dining room where Narcissa's feast was waiting. "Eleven years and we found him at last! The old coot just couldn't resist bringing the golden child to Hogwarts. And that's not even the best part."
"Oh?" Narcissa asked distantly as they sat down.
"You'll never guess what they're hiding at the school this year – the Philosopher's Stone!"
"That's great dear," Narcissa said feigning mild interest even though she was getting more nervous by the minute. Contrary to popular belief, Narcissa Black Malfoy was not just another dimwitted trophy wife. She knew what the stone meant even before Lucius elaborated.
"Don't you see Cissa? This is it! This is our ticket to bring the Dark Lord back! Quirrel has already taken a position at the school and once they have the stone, they can take a quick detour in the castle, kill Potter and then nothing will stand in the Dark Lord's way!"
At that moment, Draco walked in for dinner.
"Ah, Draco just who I was looking for," Lucius said.
"Yes father?" Draco asked as he sat down.
"There's a boy who will be in your class at Hogwarts, a boy named Harry Potter," Lucius grinned maliciously. "I want you to be friends with him."
"Yes father."
That was when Narcissa knew that she couldn't tell Lucius about her pregnancy. If the Dark Lord came back to power, shielding her children was one thing. But when Lucius started to involve Draco in Deatheater schemes, she knew she couldn't tell him. It was too late for Draco. Narcissa would do everything in her power to make sure her son stayed safe but she would not subject her daughter to the same fate.
oOoOoOoOo
"So my mother hid her pregnancy," Draco continued. "She cast disillusionment charms to hide her swelling stomach. The month before she gave birth, she told my father she was going off on a holiday. My father was so concentrated on the Dark Lord's return he agreed without really caring where my mother went. So my mother went off to France where she had Sophie in April of 1st year. She had Sophie in a muggle hospital so that her birth wouldn't be traced. My mother stayed with Sophie in a villa in the south of France. She occasionally apparated back to England to keep up appearances. For almost 4 years, my father was under the impression that my mother simply liked to visit and stay with her friends in France. Had he looked closer, he would've noticed that she spent too much of her time away from home. For her part, my mother made sure she was there whenever my father required it and luckily, my father was too busy with the Dark Lord's business, he didn't bother keeping track of where she was. Fate had a way of working out so that Sophie grew up with my mother by her side."
"You're mother is so brave," Hermione reflected. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Did you always know about Sophie?"
"I met Sophie the summer between 2nd and 3rd year. She was a little bit more than a year old," Draco slightly smiled remembering. "Mother wasn't planning on telling me about Sophie at all. She was afraid for Sophie's safety. And she had every right to be." Draco looked at Hermione then. His eyes were so sad, so haunted when he said that last sentence, Hermione wanted to comfort him. But she was Granger and he was Malfoy and that just didn't happen.
"I wanted so much to be like my father," Draco's tone turned pensive. "I tried to talk like him, walk like him, act like him – be a proper Malfoy. I worshipped the ground he walked on. My mother saw that. She was afraid that if she told me, I would tell Father and all would be lost. I probably would have too. I even wanted to be a Deatheater," Draco laughed darkly. "If being a powerful Malfoy meant becoming a Deatheater, then I wanted to be one too. I believed everything they said. Everything about pureblood supremacy and the need to purify the wizarding world." Draco paused. "You look shocked Granger."
"Yes, but not for the reason you think," Hermione answered.
"Oh?"
"I understand how you could've been brainwashed because of your adoration for your father. What shocks me is that you're using past tense. And from what I can see," Hermione said looking at Draco's rolled up sleeves and unmarked arms. "You're not a Deatheater. And it seems like you don't believe in this crap anymore. So what changed?"
Draco was shocked at Granger's quick pick-up though he tried not to show it. He thought he would have a hard time convincing her that he wasn't a Deatheater – not that he would've bothered or anything. "2nd year," he said matter of factly.
"2nd year?"
"Yeah the whole Chamber of Secrets deal. Don't get me wrong, I was glad that the basilisk was getting rid of mudbloods," Draco said and quickly added at Hermione's outraged face. "Hold on Granger. Don't get your knickers in a twist."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"As I was saying," Draco continued. "As glad as I was that the mudbloods were getting what they deserved, I still wanted to know what was going on. Target or not, something was going on in this school and I wanted to find out what. I wasn't going to get caught off guard if something happened or worse, I wasn't going to take the fall for something I didn't do. Heir of Slytherin, indeed. As flattering as that was, it started to get people wary of me. Even Crabbe and Goyle were getting suspicious."
At this point Hermione snickered. Draco chose to ignore it.
"Anyway, I started researching this so called 'Heir' everyone was talking about. After a couple hours, anyone with half-a-brain could see that the heir was obviously the Dark Lord."
Hermione was stunned at how quickly he figured it out.
"That made me even happier. I mean, being a Malfoy and future loyal Deatheater, he obviously wouldn't hurt me. I even imagined him taking over the school, putting me in charge, and making Potter my personal slave. Don't laugh," Draco said when he noticed the beginnings of a smile on Hermione's face. "I was 12 ok?"
Hermione merely nodded, trying to keep herself from laughing.
"So anyway, everything was fine until I found something that literally changed my life."
Hermione stopped. "What did you find out?"
"The Dark Lord is a half-blood," Draco spat. "A stupid orphan who had to scramble his stupid name just to get away from his muggle father. That's when I realized what an insane hypocrite he was. Who was he to talk about blood purity when, by his definition, he himself should be eliminated by his so-called 'cleansing'? And my father. My father, the great Malfoy that I looked up to, followed and groveled at the feet of this half-breed. A half-breed who couldn't even kill a 12 yr old child and had to live in a diary. I mean, what kind of twisted world was that? It sickened me. All my beliefs were shattered in that instant. I mean, if this maniac that ruled our lives didn't make sense, how was I supposed to believe anything anymore? I was so appalled I couldn't bear to look at my father anymore. I asked Father if I could go with Mother to France on the pretense that I wanted a holiday. Once we arrived in France, I was so confused that I told my mother everything. She confirmed what I found out and explained to me what she wanted to teach me the whole time – that blood didn't matter. At first it was hard to believe. After all, the fact that I was superior was ingrained in me everyday since childhood – it had become a part of who I was. But slowly, my mother patiently showed me the truth. She told me how Ben, my best friend when I was little, was a muggle. I had always wondered what happened to him. I was told he moved away. I guess my father found out and forbade my mother from letting me play with him. She told me how Snape, my godfather who I also looked up to was a half-blood. All of this stuff made me think. If people I had considered equals, and in some cases looked up to, turned out to not be purebloods, then who's to say that blood mattered? I mean, if a half-blood can get a bunch of the most powerful purebloods to serve him then obviously pure blood didn't do anyone any favours. And as I started to think more, I started noticing cracks in my father's principles, including you."
"Me?"
"Here you were, a muggleborn, a mudblood who was supposedly beneath me in every way. Yet, you were always top of every class, you performed every spell perfectly before I did, and, with the exception of flying, was basically better at everything than me! Logically, blood obviously has nothing to do with it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was being fed bullshit my whole life."
"Then why do you still act like such a jerk?" Hermione asked in shock. Then she realized what she just said. "I mean, I didn't mean for it to come out that way –"
"No, you're right," Draco said.
"Excuse me? Can you say that again?"
"You're right," Draco glared at her. "But I'm still a Malfoy. My pride wouldn't let me suddenly roll over and play nice with you 3. More importantly, I had to keep up the façade that I wanted to be a Deatheater, for my mother's, and now Sophie's, safety. Once my mother realized that I didn't buy my father's crap anymore and that she can trust me, she introduced me to Sophie and told me about the need to keep her secret. Obviously, when I went back to the manor, I had to pretend like nothing's changed or else my father would get suspicious. It's been that way ever since."
"That still doesn't explain why Sophie's here and not with your mother in France."
"This summer, fate threw another curve ball at us," Draco explained. Hermione nodded. She knew all about curve balls. "After the incident in the ministry," he looked pointedly at Hermione. "The Dark Lord decided to grace us with his presence and make the Manor his headquarters. Before you make a fool of yourself," Draco paused hearing Hermione's sharp intake of breath. "Dumbledore knows all this already so there's no point acting like Christmas came early."
"Anyway," he continued. "Having guests in the Manor, means that my mother would have to stay there the whole time and entertain them. Obviously, this means she can't stay with Sophie in France. She very well can't leave Sophie with anyone else as I'm sure you can appreciate the grave danger of that set-up. So we had no choice but to hide her here where I can look after her and make sure she remains happy and oblivious of how her family is falling apart."
Once again, Hermione had to suppress the urge to comfort the boy in front of her. A boy who, like Harry, had to grow up too fast and carry such heavy burdens.
"I don't want, or need your pity Granger," Draco said as if reading her mind.
"I wasn't going to give it Malfoy," Hermione replied.
"Whatever," Draco dismissed her. "In any case, aside from my mother and myself, and now you, only Snape and Dumbledore know about Sophie so I would thank you to keep your mouth shut. I don't think I need to emphasize how dangerous this would be if anyone found out. Rest assured Granger, my father would not hesitate to kill Sophie if he found out."
Hermione gasped. "Surely, he wouldn't kill his own child."
"Why not? He already condemned one to death," Draco said. Again, there was such a haunted look in his eyes, Hermione couldn't help but want to reach out. She was about to lean forward when…
"Drake?" Sophie's sleepy voice broke the spell.
"Hey Izzy, had a good nap?" Draco turned to Sophie with such a different, cheerful tone, it made Hermione's head spin.
"Uh huh," Sophie turned to Hermione. "Oh good, you're still here. We can go play some more."
"Actually, I think it's almost time for dinner," Draco interrupted her before she got too excited. "Why don't you go wash up and get ready."
"Okay," Sophie pouted. "You're gonna come back and visit me right?" she asked Hermione.
Hermione looked at Draco questioningly.
"As long as she wants you to, you can come back anytime you want Granger," Draco said tiredly.
"Sure," Hermione replied to Sophie.
"Promise?" Sophie's cute face was too hard to resist.
"Promise."
Sophie beamed. "Okay, goodbye Hermione. It was nice playing with you. I have to wash up for dinner now. See you next time!" With that she ran off to the bathroom.
"Oh! Dinner! What time is it?" Hermione asked Draco. She got so caught up in his story she totally didn't notice the time.
"You have about half an hour before dinner. Don't worry, I'm sure the Hogsmeade people are just getting back now," Draco assured her.
"Well, uh," Hermione stammered. "I should be going now. I'll, uh, see you around."
"Oh and Granger," Draco's voice stopped Hermione from opening the door. "Thank you."
Hermione, knowing how hard it was for Malfoy to thank her, nodded in acknowledgement and walked out the door.
A/N: There you have it folks – Sophie's story. As always, thanks for reading and please, please review! I have over 1,000 hits on this story but only 23 reviews so please let me know what you think!
Also, I'm trying something new – I created a facebook account for my penname. If you want to contact me or know more, you can add me as a friend. I might post things to update my profile, random thoughts, etc. For example, if you look at my author profile, I obviously created it before Breaking Dawn came out so I'm planning to post what I thought of Breaking Dawn on facebook at some point soon. I tried creating an account before but facebook deleted it so please add me so that hopefully facebook won't delete it this time.
Because facebook deleted my whole penname last time, it's now under Elizabeth Mal. So search "Elizabeth Mal" – this will give you tons of hits so narrow it down to the "Portsmouth" network. So please add me, tell me who you are on this site (if you have a username), and I won't even contact you if you don't want me too :D Thanks!