All characters belong to JK Rowling

Chapter 28 – Fools Rush In Where Draco Dare to Tread

"Where is she?" Harry asked calmly, walking toward Draco as he sat on a bench outside a room at St. Mungo's.

Draco cocked his head to the side and said, "In there, obviously. She told me she was having gas pains, but the pain kept getting worse, so I brought her here, to see a healer."

"It's too early for labour pains," Harry pointed out, sitting on the other end of the bench.

"Yes, too early," Draco agreed. "She's only twenty weeks pregnant."

"Why was she with you?" Potter asked. "I thought she gave you up, like a bad habit."

"Funny, Potter. I wish I could give you up, but like everything else bad in my life, you'd probably come back to me, only be ten times worse, or in your case, ten times holier than thou."

"Shove it, you blighter. Where was she when she first got this pain, anyway?"

"She was at the Ministry, talking with a certain arsehole, also known as an Unspeakable, whom we both know. She went there to get some answers, because she wasn't content to let things alone," Draco answered evasively.

Harry regarded him quietly, and then asked, "What were you doing there?"

"I was there to see you, because I missed you so much," Draco said with a serious expression. After a few seconds he said, "Just suffice it to say that I saw her there." He wasn't about to tell Potter that he went there to see the same person, probably for the same reason, (to ask questions regarding Jeff's muteness) but also with the hope that she might be there.

Harry stood and began to pace. "Off the subject, I enjoyed my time with Jeff the other day at the Muggle car show. Thanks for letting him go with me."

Draco shrugged. "For some odd reason, the kid likes you. He doesn't have very refined taste yet. I hope he grows out it." Draco smirked as Harry snorted. Draco added, "Do you have any clues yet, how to reverse the curse on the kid?"

"Not so far, but I'm still working on it. Have you told Hermione about our theory regarding Jeff's problem?"

Draco almost growled. He hated to be reminded about Jeff's problem and the possible reason for it. "I was about to do just that when the pain got worse, so I brought her here instead."

Harry frowned. "Tell her soon, Malfoy, or I will."

"Yes, Master," Draco supplied sarcastically. "Although you know, we only just came to the conclusion about the kid within the last few weeks. It's not as if we've been withholding information from her."

A healer walked out of the room at that moment. Harry walked over to the woman, and Draco stood and joined them. "Are you both with Ms. Granger?"

"I'm her best friend and that's the bane of her existence," Harry said, pointing toward Draco.

Draco knocked Harry's hand away and the woman frowned in confusion. Draco clarified, "Yes, we're with her. Is she going to be okay? And the baby? Please tell me that the baby's alright."

"Both fine, although I'm keeping her overnight to be sure. She'd like to see the bane of her existence for a few moments." The woman smiled at Draco and then held the door opened for him.

He gave Harry a cocky smile and walked into the room.

She lay upon a large bed with white linens and pillows, looking so small and helpless. He felt like a cad, and he didn't even know why. It wasn't his fault that she was here, yet he felt that it was. He knew if he walked further into the room, she'd want the rest of 'the story' about Charles, and he wasn't ready to explain everything, although he would if she asked it of him. She deserved to know the truth.

Possibly, he could divert her attention to something else. He was good at that sort of thing. Walking into the room, he immediately sat upon the side of her bed. He took her hand, and when her eyes turned to his, he said, "You best be out of here in a day or two, because we haven't but four days until the children are off to Hogwarts, and they still want you to come with us to get their books and things."

"I know," she said softly. "Tell them I'll try."

Raising her hand to his lips, he kissed it gently. Then, to his surprise, and without prompting from her, he said, "I'm ready to tell you the second thing Charles made me promise him as he lay dying, but I must make a few other things clear first."

Hermione gave him a surprised look, drawing her hand from his. Sitting up in the bed, she nodded, but said nothing.

He felt as astonished by his proclamation as she seemed. Perhaps it was seeing her HERE of all places, lying in a bed at St. Mungo's, which was the last place he'd seen Charles, that gave him the courage to tell her the rest of his confession. On the other hand, perchance it was merely TIME to tell her the TRUTH, (Ah…truth, what an ugly, five-letter word). Either way, still sitting on the side of the bed, feet flat on the floor, facing the wall, arms on his legs, head down, he began.

"I already told you most of the story at the Ministry, but let me recap. Charles and Tracey fought. He went to get the kids. He called me, because they were too young to Disapparate. We fought as well, over you, because I was jealous of him – because he got you first, and I was the one driving when we wrecked."

He stopped talking for about five minutes. Hermione didn't urge him onward, though she wanted to. Instead, she waited, and he finally found the courage to continue.

"So yeah, about that second promise. You see, it was early when Charles called me. Dawn hadn't broken, so the sky was still that eerie, blue colour. I don't know why I recall that, but it stands out clearly in my mind. I stood outside in the drive, by my car, while Charles packed the kids in the backseat. Tracey was screaming at him from the front door. Little Marie was already in the car, crying. Jeff was hanging half in the car, half out, in shock. Frankly, I'd never seen the kid so was quiet, sullen. Once, during the middle of it, he opened the backdoor of the car and ran back toward the front door, as his parents continued to stand in the doorway, fighting.

"I yelled for him to come back before someone called the Muggle police. Jeff continued toward the house – he left the car door open - and went running, screaming for his mum. I rushed up to him, grabbed him by his scrawny little shoulder, turned him toward me and shouted, 'Get your arse back in that car and don't you say another word, you stupid little rotter, before you get us all thrown into jail, or worse, Azkaban!'

"The poor little boy turned around, looked at me with tears in his big brown eyes, and ran back to the car. I slammed the door close with a bang."

Draco stood up, but still couldn't face her. He continued to face the wall. Leaning against the wall, using it for support, he continued. "The last word Jeff ever spoke, more of a scream really, and it was, 'Mummy', and I told him to shut it and to get back in the car. After that, Charles came back to the car, with Tracey following him, crying, and begging him not to take her children from her."

"Draco, wait," Hermione implored, moving her legs around so that she was sitting on the side of the bed. "I thought their mother disappeared. You told me she disappeared the night Charles died. You told me the day he died, he had just left her house, very early, and that the children were still sleeping. He told her he'd just met someone that he thought he might want to marry someday, and he wanted the children to move in with them, so they could know magic someday.

"You said their mother didn't take it well, because her mental health was fragile, and she disappeared right after he told her, and then the children woke up, and she was gone. You claim you went to tell them about their father being dead, and discovered that their mother was missing at that time."

"That's what you told me," she finished.

He whirled around to her and shouted, "Well I lied, didn't I, Granger? Haven't you heard a word of what I just said? Are you stuck on the whole thing about Charles taking the kids that you seriously didn't hear what I just said about Jeff?"

Hermione began to breathe very hard. She hadn't yet made a connection to Draco's story and Jeff's affliction. Instead, she accused, "Draco Malfoy – do you even know the meaning of the word 'truth'? Tell me the truth, right now! Which story is real? When you first wanted me to teach them you implied she was dead, then you implied she was missing! You even said that the Muggle authorities classified her as a missing person, now you're telling me that Charles and you took the children right out from under her nose! Does that mean she's still alive?"

"Is she alive, Draco? Is she looking for her children? Is that why your father is involved? Is he protecting you, because he knows that you shouldn't have the children?"

Draco sighed and turned back toward the wall. When Draco still hadn't answered her questions, or turned back around to face her, she asked the one question he was waiting for. Grasping, she asked, "Oh, Draco, are you responsible for Jeff's inability to speak? Did you accidentally curse him when you shouted at him to keep quiet, and now you don't know how to reverse it, and that's the reason you're keeping the children, because you're afraid you'll be in trouble or something?"

He turned to her, with a look of true horror on his face. His chest heaved, his right hand reached out blindly for her arm. "Granger, you can't possibly think that's true, do you? I wouldn't keep the children because I was afraid of being in trouble or something insane like that!" He didn't want her to think that, even if there was a morsel of truth in her allegation.

He explained, "According to my father, after Tracey Davis' father, a renown Death Eater, killed his wife, he turned to his crying daughter and said, 'Stop crying right now, and don't ever tell anyone what you saw, or you'll send me to Azkaban, do you hear?' After that, she stopped talking for two years. No one ever knew if he had cursed her, or if she had cursed herself, but the truth remained that it WAS a curse that caused her muteness, just as a it's probably a curse that's caused Jeff's, whether it's self-imposed, or brought on by me."

He dropped his arm and sank into a chair in the corner of the room. He brought his hands up to his face, covered it, and told her everything that his father had learned from Adrian Pucey regarding Tracey Davis' muteness years earlier. Although he didn't want to believe the same thing caused Jeff's muteness, he couldn't dispute that was the case.

Hermione felt compassion toward Draco, as well as anger. "Adrian Pucey should have told me the same thing when I went to him, but I guess he felt he would be betraying a sacred Slytherin trust or something. We'll get back to Jeff, and to the fact that you're probably wanted for kidnapping by the Muggle authorities, something I was worried about months ago. Tell me the second part of Charles' promise, Draco Malfoy."

Almost in a stupor, he continued his story. "Tracey ran to the side of the car. I had already started the motor. Charles got in and told me to leave. Tracey was begging Charles not to take her children. The children were huddled together in the backseat, but they weren't crying.

"We left Tracey and started toward the Inn. Once we were on the motorway, I began to bait him. I told him that Hermione Granger would want nothing to do with him if he lied to her. He said he had no intention of lying to you." Draco stood and began to pace, so Hermione sat back on the bed.

"I told him that by taking the children away from their mother, he was lying! He said that it was the first truthful thing he'd done in a long time, because they had a right to be raised in a magical home, with magical parents. I told him he was barking mad, because he'd just met you, and you wouldn't want to marry him that quickly. I also told him that if I knew one thing for certain, I knew that once you knew he took those children away from their mother, you would want him to return them.

"I told him that you wouldn't think it was a bad thing to be raised a Muggle, and you would have compassion for Tracey. I said he was starting everything wrong. He was crazy, insane, and stupid even.

"That's when he yelled back that I was just jealous. I told him that of course I was, but at least I wasn't a cruel bastard who took children away from their mother." At that, he stopped pacing he looked down at her face, into her eyes. He grabbed her hands. "And I'm not a bastard either. I swear, Tracey, or Mary, whatever you want to call her, is gone. I went back after the accident and she was gone. No one knows where, and I really do have custody of those children. Do you think St. Potter, the holier than most, saviour of our world, would let me keep them if I didn't? He knows all of this."

Hermione sighed. "The promise, Draco. Get to the promise."

Still holding her hands, he pulled her from the bed, and walked over to the chair in the corner, sitting down with her on his lap. Keeping his arms around her tightly, he said, "That's when we crashed. It all happened so fast. A curve in the road, going too fast, screaming at each other, then the crash. We went to a Muggle hospital first, and then I had him transferred here. As he lay dying, he made me promise to take care of the children as if they were my own, and to take care of you, because he knew I had feelings for you. He wanted you to be happy, and to have your dreams realized. He said you two talked a lot about your dreams and hopes for the future, and he wanted me to help them come true for you, so I said I would."

"And?" she prompted.

Draco waited, and then said, "Then he made me promise one other thing. He said, 'You were right about one thing, Malfoy. I shouldn't have lied to Hermione. I should have told her right off that I had children with Tracey, and that I was once a Death Eater. I should never have pretended to be something that I wasn't. Maybe if I had told her the truth from the beginning, I wouldn't have felt such a rush to get to the truth at the end, and Tracey and I wouldn't have fought, and the children wouldn't have suffered, and you and I wouldn't have fought, and we wouldn't have crashed.' Then he said, 'So don't make the same mistake I made, Draco old boy, don't lie to her. Start with the truth, from day one, and everything will be good to go.' And then he died, just like that."

Hermione pushed away from his arms, stood up, and said, "Oh, Draco, but you didn't, did you? You lied from the very start, you poor, misguided man. Leave me now. Just leave."

He waited several beats of his heart to be sure that she really said 'leave' and when he was sure, he stood and said, "But I finally told you the truth. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Yes, it means you were finally caught in so many lies that you had no way out but to finally tell me the truth, a truth that you promised your best friend, as he was dying, that you wouldn't lie to me, and then you proceeded to do nothing but lie to me. I don't even know what to do with that." Propping one hip on the bed, she fell boneless down on the bed, curled into a ball, and started to cry.

Draco left the room, wandered discontentedly down the hallway, drifting silently down one corridor to the next, and finally one thing become bitterly clear to him. He was a stupid, stupid man. Lying had always come so easy to him. It was like a second skin. He wore it as an armor. It protected him from harm, kept the wolves at bay, but for some reason, it always left a sour taste in his mouth, and made it hard to sleep at night, but at least he had the girl at the end of the day.

When finally, he found the courage to be truthful, all it did was make him feel sad and remarkably lonely, and he found he didn't like it much better than he liked lying.

Now what was he supposed to do?

(Two more chapters to go!)