All characters belong to JK Rowling
Chapter 25 –Draco Malfoy was a Liar, but That Shouldn't Surprise Hermione Granger
Marie sat on the edge of Hermione's bed, swinging her legs back and forth, and while her tutor was dressing for her 'first date' with Draco, the young girl was filling her in on the testing from earlier.
"When Professor Hollis asked me if I'd ever heard of that spell, I swear, I almost drew a blank, I did," the pretty girl laughed.
Hermione walked out of the bathroom at that statement. "But that was one of the first spells I ever told you." She shook her head and asked, "Will you zip me, please?" She turned her back to Marie, who in turn, stood from the bed and started to zip Hermione's dress.
"I know!" she answered, "but I forgot it at first, but suddenly, it all came tumbling back, like a damn broke, and I remembered it. Then Professor Flitwick asked me what I knew about charms, and I told him that was my favourite subject and then, well, I knew I had won them over." She bounced back down on the bed with a large smile on her bed.
Hermione placed an earring in her ear, while a matching smile came upon her face. "You're a smooth one all right. I bet anything you'll be in Slytherin. Are you sure you don't mind Draco and I going out tonight, because that means we'll miss your sorting."
Marie shrugged. "If I'd been here during my first year, my parents would've missed it anyway, so I don't mind if you miss it now." She stood from the bed and added, "I should go get ready for dinner. Harry Potter said he'd be here to pick Jeff and me up around six and it's almost that now. Have fun tonight, Hermione." She left the room without another word or a look toward Hermione. If she had, she would have seen the shocked expression on her face.
Draco walked into the room just as Marie was leaving it. He pulled Marie's hair as she walked by him, then winked at Hermione and said, "You look pretty." He waited a moment, then asked, "Wait, what's wrong. You have a blank, vacant expression on your face that's usually reserved for members of the Weasley family."
"Marie just more or less called you and me her parents," Hermione expressed, sitting down on the bed behind her. "She said something about the fact that she didn't mind if we missed her sorting tonight, because if she'd been sorted during her first year, her parents would have missed it anyway." She placed her hands on her lap and hung her head.
Draco approached slowly, and when he stood before her he asked, "So? Does that upset you or something?"
"Don't you see, Malfoy? I let those children get too close to me, and in return, I got too close to them. I don't know what all this means, because my job's over on Monday. Two days from now, I'll be out of there lives," she said.
He frowned, sat beside her and pressed, "You bloody well will not." At least, not if he had anything to do with it.
"But our agreement…"
"I don't give a shite about our agreement!" Draco stood and began to pace in front of her. "Blimey, Hermione, don't the words 'I love you' mean anything to you? What's with people these days? Is sex just empty sex?"
"Of course not, Malfoy, but you hired me for a job," Hermione stated.
"And you'll get your effing money, don't worry about that!" Draco bellowed. He threw his arms in the air and said, "I'm going back out in the hall and we're going to do this all over again, and you, Granger, are going to act halfway normal. I know it'll be hard for you, because you had that weird Muggle upbringing, but try really hard. Don't mention leaving again, don't mention this being a job, and don't you dare mention empty sex or money!"
He actually turned to leave the room.
"Draco?"
With a sigh, and without turning to face her - "What?"
"You're the one that mentioned sex being sex and you mentioned money," she pointed out. He turned to face her with anger in his eyes, then turned back toward the open door and started out of it. Still, she forged on and asked, "Though you will still give The Granger School for the Gifted the large endowment you promised, right?"
He turned back around to face her so fast she cowered on the bed for a second, her eyes wide, though she had a smile on her face.
He shouted, "I don't give a toss for that money!"
"It was a sort of a joke, but I do give a toss for the money," she said lightly. She stood up and began to push him toward the door. "Fine, fine, fine. Go outside, and let's start our date over again. You're right, we can't start it all angry with each other. I won't mention money or employment contracts, and you won't mention reneging on employment contracts or empty sex."
He held onto the doorjamb of the open door as she continued to try to push on his shoulders. "Wait a second, Granger. You'll get the money, and plenty of empty sex, but you'll also stay, right?"
"We'll see," she replied. "I can't promise anything. I don't know what the future holds. I only know that right now, you're making me late for a very important date. Now go outside and knock on the door and tell me how fabulous you think I look."
"I changed my mind. You don't look that fab," he snorted, turning around.
"Liar!" She slammed the door so hard and quickly that it hit him on the bum.
He was still rubbing his backside when Harry walked down the hallway with Jeff in tow.
"Why did Hermione call you a liar?" Harry asked, his hand on Jeff's shoulder.
"Probably because I'm a liar," Draco replied. "It's about time you brought the kid back from Big Foot's house. I was half afraid that Jolly Hairy Giant might eat the poor lad," Draco joked to Harry as he winked at Jeff. Then to the boy he asked, "Did you have a good time at Giantville? Did you play on any of the rides? Please tell me you didn't touch anything, especially his beard. You never know what might be growing in there. You should go get a shower before dinner at Hogwarts. Go get deloused, too."
Jeff smiled, but ran to his room across the hall.
Draco looked up at Harry with a smirk. Harry didn't look amused. "What, Potter? Don't tell me that when you were young, you never worried about what things might be growing in Hagrid's beard. I know you must have. Everyone worried about that."
"I have nothing to say to that remark," Harry remarked. "Is Hermione in her room?"
"She's in OUR room, where we had SEX earlier and where we'll have SEX again later, in many positions, by the way," Draco responded lazily, leaning against the wall, his legs crossed at the ankles, looking at his nails.
"Well, tell her that I'm heading back to London now, so I won't be joining the children at Hogwarts for dinner with the Professors, after all. Something's important has come up, so your father will have to chaperon them by himself." Harry turned to leave.
Draco glared at him for a moment then called out. "Potter!"
Harry didn't stop. He turned a corner and started down the stairs. Draco caught up with him. "Potter, stop!"
"What?" Harry asked, abruptly.
"I thought you were going to examine Jeff," Draco retorted.
"And I thought I wasn't needed," Harry countered. "I remember your father telling me he could examine Jeff just as easily as I could. I also recall McGonagall saying he was too tired today, so it should wait. Was all of that lies, or the truth?"
"What are you going on about? Of course that was the truth, which means you'll be back tomorrow to examine him, right?" Draco asked, expectantly.
"No," Harry responded quickly, walking down the stairs.
Draco watched until Harry was at the front doors, and then he ran all the way down the stairs, and to the doors to stop him. "Scarhead, wait!"
"Why?" Harry barked. "You haven't been truthful about some things, have you, Malfoy?"
"How is that pertinent to your examining Jeff?" he asked back, confused. "And for your information, I haven't been truthful about many, many things, but again, and I very rarely am, but I don't see how that's important."
Harry shook his head in annoyance, walked from the front doors into anteroom room off the lobby. Draco followed. Once inside the empty room, Harry said, "If you'd been truthful about some things in the beginning, it would've been easier to have known what we were up against with Jeff, that's all I'm saying, but no, as usually, Draco Malfoy had to have secrets and lies."
Hermione had come out of her room to see what was taking Draco so long to knock on the door for their date. Just as she opened the door, she saw Draco run down the corridor, calling Harry's name. Curious, she followed.
Now she stood outside the anteroom off the lobby, outside the partially opened door, listening to the men converse.
Harry said, "If you'd been truthful about some things in the beginning, it would've been easier to have known what we were up against with Jeff, that's all I'm saying, but no, as usually, Draco Malfoy had to have secrets and lies."
Draco sighed, sat on a small settee and said, "Just tell me to what you're referring."
"I know who Marie and Jeff's mother is," Harry responded.
That bold statement made Draco sit up straight, and it made Hermione place a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't gasp aloud.
Draco decided to continue his charade, incase Potter was trying to worm information from him. "She was a Muggle named Mary something or other. She disappeared the same day Charles was killed. The Muggle authorities think she probably either ran off or killed herself. She had no relatives. As far as anyone knows, Jeff and Marie are orphans, wards of the state, and I was appointed their guardian, by the Muggle authorities and by Wizarding law, being the godfather."
Hermione waited anxiously for Harry to say something. She knew she wanted to say something. Finally, Harry delivered, when he said, "What a bunch of tripe! Try again, Malfoy. "
"What?" Draco said, standing from the settee. "It's the complete and unadulterated truth!"
"Let's try it again, Malfoy, but this is your last try!" Harry fumed. "Does the name Tracey Davis ring a bell?"
"No, why should it?" Draco asked back with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Is he a former boyfriend of yours?"
"Not a he, but a she, a certain half-blood who was in Slytherin during our first year. She would have been a third year student at that time, and she disappeared from school that same year, shortly after it began. Seems there were some problems at home, something about her Muggle mother being killed by her pureblood father. The father was sent to Azkaban, and later became a Death Eater, who escaped when Voldemort returned. After she left school, she was raised by her mother's Muggle family, and was forced to renounce her magic."
Hermione stood outside in the hallway, shocked at everything Harry was telling Draco.
"Alright, Potter, how did you know all of this? How did you find out?" Draco spat.
"I came here two days ago, in preparation for my meeting with Jeff. I went to see Hagrid, had a spot of tea with him, and thought I'd tell him what I was up against. I told him Hermione wanted me to examine your ward, that he couldn't speak, and while some, like Goldstein, thought it was traumatic muteness, Hermione thought it was the result of a dark curse or spell."
"And low and behold, he told me a similar thing happened to a little girl named Tracey Davis when she was just a bit older than Jeff. She witnessed her father kill her mother, and afterwards, she couldn't speak for almost two years. The Ministry examined her in the beginning, but finally, her Muggle grandparents wouldn't let them, or the Healers, examine her any longer. She left the magical world, and no one ever saw her or heard from her again, such as it was."
Draco felt all the blood rush from his head. He sat back down before he fainted. "What made you assume this little girl had anything to do with Jeff?"
"You mean, what made me realize that Tracey Davis was Jeff and Marie's mother?" Harry asked sharply. "Years of instinct on such things. Coincidences like this don't happen every day, Malfoy. Also, Hagrid got a picture of Tracey Davis as a child, from Hogwarts' records, and I compared them with known pictures from the Muggle known as Mary Essex, the children's mother. It didn't take a genius to know they were the same person, taken years apart."
Draco nodded. "Jeff recognized a picture of his mother in the Quidditch store, with the Slytherin team, when she was a third year, when he was in there with my father."
"Why the lies, Malfoy? Are you protecting the children from her, or from her father's family, or what?" Harry asked.
Hermione wanted to know the answers to that question as well, but before Draco could answer, Lucius walked up behind Hermione, tapped her on the shoulder, which made her suck in her breath, turn toward him, and gasp loudly.
"Oh, Mr. Malfoy, you scared me!" she admitted in a whisper, her hand over her heart.
"I've been waiting for you to admit as much most of my life," Lucius drawled. "Why are you eavesdropping outside this door? I assume that's what you're doing, isn't it? You are eavesdropping, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am, and Draco's just getting to the good part, so be quiet and let me listen," she begged, placing a hand on his sleeve. She pulled him toward the wall, placed a finger over her mouth to motion that he needed to be quiet, and then she leaned back toward the opened doorway to listen.
But by then, Draco and Harry's conversation was apparently over, because nothing else was being said. "I don't hear anything important," Lucius said.
"Well they were saying good stuff before you came!" Hermione said, annoyed, then she slapped his chest hard. Lucius walked up to the door, closed it, not caring if the men inside wondered why, then he took Hermione's sleeve in his grasp and he ushered her toward the large, opened lobby.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked.
"I think it's time we had a talk," he explained.
"Oh for goodness sakes, can't this wait?" she asked, irritated, hands on her hips, pulling her arm from his hand.
He gleamed, "No, it can't wait. I want to know what your intentions are toward my son."
Hermione snorted and said, "That's rich. Are you serious? Do you want to know if I intend to make an honest man out of him, because I have to tell you, it's too late for that, because I don't think Draco knows the meaning of the word 'honest'?" She crossed her arms over her expanding belly and tapped her toes on the floor.
Lucius continued to glare at her and he said, "As that's probably true, I meant your intentions as far as that baby is concerned. He's already raising two of Charles Warrington's children, so I guess what I'm asking is, do you intend for him to raise another one?"
That question shocked Hermione to her core. "I'm totally gobsmacked that you would ask me that question!"
"I don't know that word," Lucius admitted, narrowing his gaze, "but it sounds completely mundane and Muggle, and hardly answers my question, young lady."
"Why don't you ask Draco who Tracey Davis is first, and when he answers that question for you, then I'll answer your question, okay?" she snapped. Flying out of the lobby, she ran past Harry, who was walking out of the small anteroom, and then past Draco, who was on his way up the stairs, to find her.
Draco stopped on the stairs and called after her, "Hermione? Where are you going?"
She turned on the stairs and said, "I'm telling the children goodbye and then I'm leaving. My job's over and done. I'll expect payment by Tuesday, at the latest. Goodbye, Draco Malfoy. Goodbye, Lucius Malfoy, and even Goodbye, Harry Potter. All three of you liars may rot in hell."
The three men stood at the bottom of the stairs. Draco elbowed Harry and said, "At least she included you in that sentiment, Potter. That warms my heart a little bit."
Harry turned his head to give Draco a chiding look, but Draco added, "I meant to say that gives me hope that she doesn't totally hate me, because she could never truly hate you."
Harry pointed his thumb at Draco's father. "She included this one in her statement, too, don't forget."
Draco made a funny face and said, "Gads, she might never forgive me after all. I have to go after her."
Lucius threw his hand out and caught his son's arm. "Not yet, son. Don't you think she'll be safer this way. I wanted her to leave. Now we can concentrate on finding the children's mother, and on finding who cursed Jeffrey. Once the children are safely at school, and all is well with them, then you can go after Miss Granger, and make her see that some lies are good lies."
Harry spat dubiously, "Some lies are good lies?"
"I'm glad we finally agree on something, Potter," Lucius said with a malicious smile. He walked up the stairs, his robes billowing behind him.
Harry shook his head in disgust.
Draco sat on the stairs and sighed.
*Tracey Davis was another obscure Slytherin. Sorry the long wait on this. Back to work, and once again, my store is being remodeled. It's the joys of being the Corporate Store (I mean that sincerely.) I'll try to do at least a chapter a week until it's finished.