I didn't update for a while, and then I updated twice in 24 hours...I should really get a regular schedule. It won't happen, I'm just saying it should.

Anyway, I hope everyone's excited about meeting Rosie (:

I'm sad to see this story come to an end, mostly because how I wrote Hermione and Draco as students would have been perfect for a happy ending *sigh* that doesn't happen till the next book though.

So here we go, one more chapter (which is going to be jumping through the years) and then you can go read A Moment in Time, I know I will!

February Seventeenth, 8:57 PM, St. Mungo's HPOV

I never really imagined what I'd feel like when I heard that first cry, but it was better than anything I'd ever felt in my life.

There is nothing that compares to holding your baby for the first time.

The delivery had been a pain in the arse, and I was exhausted, but it didn't matter.

Rosie was precious.

I wasn't surprised that she had a tuft of light blonde hair on her head, and Draco's silver eyes, but she was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

At first I was a little worried that someone would notice the similarities between Rose and Draco, but I doubted they would be able to put it together. No one expected Draco and I to have anything going on.

And even though I was trying to get past him, I still found that fact a little sad.

"She's beautiful, Mione." said Ginny, tears in her eyes as she stood to my right, my camera clutched in her hands.

She'd taken a picture of Rose all bundled up before they'd given her to me, and then she'd taken another picture of me holding her for the first time.

A few minutes later Ron and Harry came in.

"Oh Merlin, she's adorable." said Ron.

I smiled, "Want to hold her?"

His eyes widened, but he nodded slowly, "Yeah,"

Harry smiled, but a curious expression crossed his face seconds later, "I take it he was a blonde?"

"Well I'm not." I said, trying to keep as much emotion out of my voice as possible.

"Well she looks a lot like you."

I nodded, "Yeah, she does, doesn't she?"

A few minutes later a nurse shooed everyone out, and they put Rose in her own little baby bed next to me.

When everyone was out of my room, when the lights were off, when everything was quiet - that's when it hit me.

She looked so much like Draco, it was almost painful. There was no doubt that I loved her. I loved her more than anything, and I would do anything for her, but that didn't change the facts.

I hadn't realized how hard it would be to see so much of Draco in her, but I should have expected it. His features were sharp, and definitely dominant. She would be a beautiful girl.

Suddenly I couldn't stop the tears.

They weren't sobs, as they so often were, they were just silent tears. Tears of happiness and sadness all at once.

Happiness because she was here, she was healthy, she was safe. Sadness because whenever I looked at her she would remind me of him - and I didn't know how I was supposed to handle that.

Was it possible to get over someone who was constantly around? At least in some way?

The next morning the nurse came into my room, asking what I knew she would.

"Have you made a final decision on the name?"

I'd given this a lot of thought - a lot - and even though I was hurt and angry and five hundred other emotions I couldn't even name, I still wanted Draco to have at least some part of her.

I remembered back in Hogwarts when we'd talked about baby names, and he'd said he would want to stick with the astronomy names, so I'd looked into a few, and after weeks of debating, I finally decided on her name.

"Yes, Rose Phoenix Granger."

Mid March HPOV

Rosie was four weeks old, and I had finally decided what I was going to do.

I suppose that's why I was standing outside Malfoy Manor.

I braced myself and knocked on the door, and a few seconds later a house elf was opening it.

"How can Wispy help lady?"

"Um...I'm looking for Lucius."

Wispy nodded and opened the door further, allowing me to walk in.

I tried to focus my eyes on the wall, because this entire house had too many memories for me. Painful memories.

A few seconds later Lucius was coming down the stairs, a scowl on his face already.

"I presume there's a reason you've decided to show up in my home unannounced."

I nodded, "Yes...it's a rather serious reason that affects you and your son."

"What could you possibly have to do with my boy? We don't associate with your kind." he snapped.

"I'm aware you don't, Lucius. But your son did. I wasn't sure if -"

"What do you mean 'my son did'?"

Quick, like a bandaid...right?

"He has a daughter."

"What?"

"He has a daughter. Her name is Rose and she's four weeks old -"

"Get out of my house, you filthy Mudbood. How dare you try to tarnish the Malfoy name by suggesting he ever laid a hand on you." he spat.

I backed up, but said, "He did more than that, Lucius."

"My son is married to a beautiful Pureblood. He has no room for the likes of you making up lies."

I nodded, "Which is why I told you."

Without another word I turned on my heel and left. I would talk to Draco next...but not today. Today I was going to spend time with Rosie.

End of March HPOV

"Astoria?"

She nodded slowly and I stepped back to let her in, instantly curious as to why she was here.

"How are you?" she asked, her eyes scanning the flat.

"I'm fine...why are you here?"

"Lucius spoke with me last week. He said that you visited him saying you had a child...that it was Draco's child."

The way she spoke was slightly stilted and it made me curious as to if she was here to save her marriage or save herself a headache with the press if this got out.

"Yeah, I did."

"Well if you don't mind my asking, where is -"

She was interrupted by Rosie's cry from the nursery.

I left Astoria standing in the living room and grabbed Rosie, walking back with her.

When Astoria saw her, her eyes widened, because really, it was obvious that this was Draco's baby.

"Hermione, you have to understand. Draco and I are happy together."

"You don't think he'd want to know he has a daughter?" I asked, sitting down on the couch.

She sat down opposite me, her legs crossed at the ankles, her hands folded on her knees and said, "No, I don't. We're happy together, Hermione. He loves me and I love him, and he doesn't need to be weighed down by a mistake he made in school."

She was right. This wasn't Draco's responsibility. Plus, I couldn't deny that Draco looked happy in the papers...

It wouldn't be fair of me to force him back into my life because of Rose - not that I thought he'd be part of her life anyway.

"So you don't want me to tell him?"

She shook her head, "You understand, don't you?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I do."

She pulled out a checkbook and said, "Let me at least help -"

"I don't need your money. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of her by myself. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do today."

Astoria grimaced, but put the checkbook up and stood, walking over to the door.

"Was it serious between the two of you?"

I stared at her for a while before I managed to force the words out, "No, I suppose not. Now if you would please." I said, motioning to the door.

She grabbed the handle, but before she left she said, "You have a beautiful daughter."

I didn't have time to respond, because she was gone a second later, leaving me feeling confused, but slightly better about my decision not to tell Draco.

I'd been putting it off for the exact reasons she'd said. He was married. He was happy.

It would be wrong of me to take that away from him, no matter how much I hated him for everything he'd put me through.

Mid April DPOV

It was weird to think that Astoria and I had been married for eight months, considering we'd barely spoken for over half of it.

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen her for two days - not that I was concerned. She did this quite often. Ever since the Halloween Ball she'd at least decreased the number of men she fucked here, opting instead to go to their homes.

I took a sip of the Fire Whiskey in my hand and looked outside at the budding spring weather, wishing I had someone -

I shook my head. That train of thought wouldn't lead anywhere good.

Hermione had been in the paper again, something about Buxom and Brant promoting her because she was such a good worker.

I didn't doubt it. No matter what she did, she always excelled at it.

Especially ignoring and avoiding me. That was something she was really good at. Well, at least she had been. I hadn't tried to contact her in quite some time.

Which left my days pretty boring.

Blaise hung out with me sometimes, but he was off traveling often, so that left me with Theo, who only wanted to go to clubs and fuck girls he met there - which of course, I could have done too, but I just didn't have it in me.

Then again, maybe I should. It would definitely help get my mind off everything, if only for a while.

"Draco?"

I groaned, downing the rest of my drink before standing up and heading towards her voice.

Astoria was shrugging out of her jacket, rather obviously trying to display the fact that she had on a short and tight sparkling dress that barely covered her arse.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if we could talk."

"Talk?" I repeated, already disliking where this was going. I didn't want to talk.

"Yes, it's this thing we seem rather bad at doing."

Her words reminded me of when Hermione and I had said relatively the same thing back at Hogwarts, and I was suddenly just so tired.

I sighed, "What did you want to talk about, Astoria?"

"The woman you said you loved."

I'm pretty sure my eyes looked like they were about to pop out of my head, and I couldn't really find any words, so I simply followed her back into the living room.

She sat down, crossed her ankles and folded her hands together on her lap - always the picture of fucking elegance even when she sat there in her outfit from two nights ago - and started talking.

"You said that you had to give her up, correct?"

"I married you, didn't I?" I asked, the venom in my voice not as dominant as I would have wanted it to be. I just sounded defeated. Though I was, wasn't I?

"So she wasn't the type to sleep with a married man."

It wasn't a question, but I answered her anyway.

"No, she wasn't."

"Well good."

I snorted, "How is that good?"

"Because I think we should start over. This isn't exactly how I want to live the next five years of my life."

I shrugged, "That's not my problem."

"But it is. I'm your wife, and whether you like it or not, your mystery woman isn't coming back to you. You're stuck with me, so we should try to fix this." she said, shifting slightly.

It was hard to take anything she was saying seriously, because of how she looked, but she had a point. Suffering for the next four years and four months wasn't exactly something I wanted to do.

"Fine,"

She smiled, and it reminded me a little of how she'd been at Hogwarts, before she said, "Good, how about we go out to lunch? Start over?"

I nodded, not really paying attention anymore. She stood up and walked upstairs to her room. Hopefully she'd take a while.

It wasn't that I didn't want a better relationship with my wife, but, well, I didn't want to spend time with her, because every second I spent with her was another second that the universe was rubbing it in my face that I fucked up. That I wasn't going to be happy here with her - it literally wasn't possible.

At least not how I would've been happy with Hermione.

But maybe this was a good change. Maybe I'd learn to tolerate her for the next four years, because as soon as I was able, I would figure out how to get Hermione back.

I would.

Rosie's First Birthday, HPOV

"She's growing up so fast." said Ginny, bouncing James up and down on her hip while we watched Rose smashing her little fingers into her birthday cake.

I'd made a separate one, of course, so she could have fun with that one.

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and all the Weasley's were here, smushed into my flat, celebrating Rosie's very first birthday.

I had gotten a Polaroid camera, so some of the pictures I'd taken from the party were already in the scrapbook.

"I know, it's hard to believe it's really been a year already."

"It's cool that our kids were born so close together. Wouldn't it be funny if they got married one day?" said Ginny, a smile on her face.

I chuckled, "Let's get them out of diapers before we start planning marriages, alright?"

She laughed and nodded, "Deal."

"She looks like Ron when he eats." commented Harry, watching as Rosie got more cake on her face than in her mouth.

Ron rolled his eyes and pretended to be offended, "Shut up, guys."

"What? It's true." said Ginny, giving her brother a playful smile.

After a few minutes Molly went over and picked her up, taking her into the kitchen to clean her up.

I chuckled and looked around. My flat was filled with people who I loved, and who loved me too - and Rosie. It was a really amazing feeling...

But despite that, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that Draco couldn't be there. Rosie deserved both parents.

But before I could get too sucked into my thoughts, Molly brought her out of the kitchen, and instantly George, Percy, and Ron were cooing over her.

I smiled, she didn't need Draco. She had a whole group of daddy's taking care of her, and if she was okay then I was okay too. She was what was important to me, and watching her face light up as she was passed between the Weasley's - that was all I needed.

Review lovelies, we're almost to the end.