Hermione spent a night laying restlessly in Draco Malfoy's bed. He was in the living room on the sofa, just call away, but every part of her wanted to call him back to her. She had the strange desire to do more than just kiss him, especially after the one they'd shared. It had turned very quickly from a simple kiss to something more heated, something that left her panting and thinking nonstop the rest of the night. She was restless anyway, because she wasn't supposed to leave the bed other than to go to the bathroom. Draco had even decided to bring her meals in bed so she wouldn't have to risk anything.
As the rest of the night dragged on, Hermione felt herself getting tired and yet somehow more awake. She kept wanting to go downstairs to talk to Draco again, but she didn't want to go downstairs and have him upset with her. He was overprotective, she'd found that out before, and now she was really forced to deal with that aspect of his personality.
Finally, early morning turned to day, and Hermione watched the sun rise from her position in the bed. She got up to go to the bathroom, but laid back down in bed to wait for Draco. He finally appeared almost half an hour later, carrying a plate with eggs and sausage. Hermione sat up a bit, and noticed that Draco looked a bit conflicted as he brought the plate to her. She was immediately convinced that he regretted what they'd done only a few hours ago, and she felt terrible. She'd been dreaming about kissing him again, and he'd been dreading it. Maybe, she thought, the kiss hadn't made him as happy as it had made her. Maybe this signaled the end of their short-lived relationship.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice conveying her sense of dread. "If you're going to leave because of what happened last night, I...I understand, but I'll need your help getting home and-"
"Leave?" Draco asked, his eyes widening. "Why on earth would I do that? I could hardly stop myself last night, why would I leave?"
"Well you looked conflicted, so I wasn't sure."
"I am conflicted."
"What about?" she asked, her slightly fear turning into concern. "If it's about me staying here, I-"
"It's not about you," he said, sighing heavily and sitting down next to her on the bed. He set the plate on a nightstand and put his head in his hands. It messed up his hair more than usual, and Hermione wasn't sure what to do to help him out. "I found something out last night, and I...I don't really know what to do with the information I have."
"Well, what is the information?" Hermione asked.
Draco sighed heavily. "It's...About my father. You know that I don't believe everything he does now, right? You know that?" Hermione nodded, worried about where he was going with the train of thought. "But he's still my father. He's...I feel some sense of responsibility for him, and I feel like...Like I can't do anything about what I learned because he's my father, and because I can't let bad things happen to him."
"Draco," Hermione said, "what did you learn?"
He was silent for a few moments, in which Hermione wondered just how bad the news was. "My father had a part in the attack on Hogsmeade," he said, his voice soft. "He wasn't actually there, but I...He'd been talking about getting involved again, and when everyone showed up at St. Mungo's last night...I just knew. That was my first stop last night, when I left you. I went and confronted him, and some of the men were there who'd attacked the village were there, and he was talking about you and hurting you. I...I should have told Potter last night, but I didn't know how. I don't want everyone to think that I had a part in this too. I would never...Not now…"
Hermione was silent too. She didn't know how to respond to his admission, nor did she know how to assure Draco that it wasn't his fault this had happened. She knew him fairly well by now, and she knew he'd take responsibility for everything that had happened. Finally, though, she found the words to speak. "Harry's going to come and bring Scorpius soon," she said, "And we can tell him then. He's not going to blame you, and if he does then he'll get a swift talking to. Okay?"
Draco sighed heavily and nodded. "I just don't want this to ruin anything."
"It won't," Hermione said. "This isn't going to ruin anything."
Draco nodded again and said, "I made you breakfast. Eggs and sausage. It's good, I think. Scorpius likes eggs a lot right now, but you know that."
Hermione smiled slightly. "I do know that. Do you think he'll be back soon? I'd love to see him."
"I do hope he'll get here soon enough. I miss my son."
"Do you think we should tell him?" Hermione asked, a bit nervous for his answer. "I mean, it might be hard to continue hiding. He asked me last night if I loved you."
"He asked me that yesterday too," Draco said, shaking his head slightly. "He's insistent. I...Suppose the news would make him happy."
"We won't do it unless you think it's a good idea," Hermione said. "He is your son after all."
Draco nodded. They didn't discuss the possibility further; instead, Hermione ate her breakfast and then started reading a book that Draco had brought with him. He went downstairs, and Hermione lost track of time as she read.
The next thing she knew, the door was opening and a small boy was running toward her. Hermione thought, just for a minute, that it was Scorpius, but upon closer inspection she realized that it was actually Albus. "Al," she said, giving him a hug and helping him to come sit next to him. "What are you doing here?"
"Daddy brought me," he said, smiling slightly. "He brought me and my new friend is downstairs with his daddy, and we're going to play together!"
"You mean Scorpius?" Hermione asked, unsurprised that the two boys had formed some kind of bond.
Albus nodded happily. "He stayed in my room last night and we played earlier this morning and then Daddy said we had to come here. He wants to come see you but I wanted to come first so I ran inside and I looked in all the rooms until I found you!"
Hermione laughed and gave him a tight hug. "I'm glad you've made a friend. Maybe we should go find them?"
He shook his head. "Daddy and the man downstairs said you couldn't get out bed. Are you sick, Aunt 'Mione?"
"I just have to rest so I can make sure your little cousin is safe," she said, touched by the three year old's concern. "Just like your Mummy has to rest every now and then to make sure your little sibling is safe."
Albus nodded. "Mummy does rest a lot. She likes to sleep."
Hermione laughed. "I do too. But I like to see you more than I like to sleep."
He grinned and hugged her again. "Aunt 'Mione, can I go find my new friend? I want to play with him in his room."
She nodded and was about to send him on his way when Harry, Draco, and Scorpius all came into the room. Scorpius took off running as soon as he saw her and hugged her as tightly as he could manage. "I missed you," he said softly, his voice muffled as he held on to her. "But I made a new friend."
"I heard about that," Hermione said with a smile. "Why don't you go show him your toys, Scorpius? I'm sure he'd love to see them."
Scorpius smiled and grabbed Albus' hand to pull him toward his bedroom and his toys. That left just her, Draco, and Harry, who looked a bit tired but was smiling. "Hey," Harry said, coming over to hug her. "How are you doing this morning? Does everything feel okay?"
She nodded. "Everything feels great, Harry. I'm being spoiled with books and breakfast in bed; everything feels amazing."
He grinned and said, "Well, I'm glad. Do you mind, both of you, if I stay here for a couple of minutes? Albus and Scorpius got along amazingly, and they don't really want to leave each other quite yet."
"It's fine," Draco said, though Hermione noticed he didn't look as comfortable as he had that morning. "Really, it is. But there is something I need to discuss with you."
"Is it about a future play date for the boys? Because I feel like they're going to need one."
"It's about the attack on Hogsmeade," Draco said, and Hermione watched as Harry's face changed from happy to nervous. Draco took a deep breath and spoke again after a long pause. "I didn't have any part in it."
"That much was obvious," Harry said. "The look on your face when everyone came into the hospital last night said so."
"My father, however, played some kind of role. I knew he had a part in it almost immediately; he'd been talking about a new group and new plans, and this...I think this is just the beginning of something really bad. I didn't tell you when I came back last night, and I should have. For that, I...I apologize."
Harry shook his head slightly. "Well, I'm glad you told me now," he said. "Even though we've had eyes on your father for years now."
"You've...you've had what?"
"Word got around a few years ago that he was acting like himself-the man I knew in school. We knew he had a lot of visitors to his house and frequently went to others, but we could never prove what he was doing. We couldn't know they were planning this, but I suspected that your father was involved somehow."
"You knew then?" Hermione asked. "And you didn't think to mention that when you woke me up last night?"
"It was mostly my own suspicions before last night," Harry said. "But I probably should have mentioned it, yes. We've already sent someone to his home this morning; there's a search being conducted, and even if we don't find anything, he'll know that we're watching for him."
Draco shook his head slightly, looking shocked. "I can't believe someone else knew about it. You could have mentioned it. I could have looked for things too."
"You're a healer, not an auror."
"I'm his son, everything he does is attached to my name."
"Can we not fight about this?" Hermione asked. "The important thing is that we know who to look out for, and we know that Draco took no part in this. Can't we just have a nice couple of minutes together?"
The two men nodded, and Hermione smiled at them. "Excellent. Now, you'll never believe what I just read…"
She spent the next twenty minutes telling them about everything she'd gotten through in the book so far. She knew that they weren't particularly interested in it, but they listened attentively and Hermione was going to take the chance to talk to someone about what she was reading. At the end of the twenty minutes though, Harry had to get Albus home so he could go into the Ministry and do a bit of work. Scorpius fell asleep not long after Albus and Harry left, because he'd had a night of interrupted sleep and he was exhausted.
For that matter, Hermione and Draco started to get tired too. But Hermione didn't let Draco leave her alone in the room again; if he did, she had no idea when he'd be back. So instead she asked him to stay, and the talked about everything for a while until she started to doze off.
