Chapter 7

Inside Information

She made her way again to the hall in the annex and found herself repeating yesterday's actions, dithering there, unsure if she could just walk into the private part of the house. No-one came to rescue her this time though, so she timidly opened the door into the ornate dining room which she found empty. She made her way to the other end of the room and again cautiously opened the door. She could hear Draco talking and hesitated again, unsure if she should call out or just walk into the kitchen.

"Were they there last night?" Draco's voice drifted down the corridor.

"Yes, I'm positive they were." It was Clem he was talking to.

"Do you think they've been thrown away by accident?"

"That's the only explanation I can think of! But I can't imagine how that could have happened."

"We need to review the process to make sure it can't happen again," Draco sounded annoyed.

"Yes, Draco, I'll make sure that happens," Clem sounded apologetic.

Hermione decided she had eavesdropped enough and called out, "Hello?"

She heard movement and Draco appeared at the end of the corridor.

"Sorry!" he said. "I was sorting out a small problem with Clem."

Clem appeared behind Draco and gave her a silly little wave that almost made her burst out laughing. "I'm just going now – have a nice evening." He walked past Hermione and gave her arm a little squeeze – she marvelled at his extremes of personality. You never knew which Clem you were going to get!

"Goodnight Clem," she said and followed Draco into the kitchen.

"What would you like to drink?" he asked, slipping naturally into being the host. "Wine, tea? A soft drink?"

"I'll have a glass of wine, please."

Draco poured her a glass and they sat on the large sofas at the end of the dining area.

"Did you enjoy today?" Draco asked. "Was it useful?"

"Yes, very useful, thank you."

"You need me to make some decisions?" Draco got straight down to business.

"Yes, I have some suggestions but it's very important that you like what I'm suggesting," Hermione, who had come far better prepared than last time, reached down to her bag and withdrew her notes and sketches. "I've done some very basic preliminary sketches to set out the composition of each painting." She placed the sketches on the low table between them and then looked at her notes. "I think we should place Betty in the forest setting by her enclosure – as you pointed out…," she stopped speaking, noticing that Draco had picked up some of the sketches and was staring at them. "Probably best we go through each one so you understand what I'm trying to achieve, these are only very rough sketches." Hermione phrased her sentence carefully but what she actually meant was put the pictures down and listen to me!

"These are incredible!" Draco appeared to not have heard a word she said.

"Oh, they're really are just very rough sketches," Hermione repeated.

"Rough sketches?! I'd buy these!" he said and Hermione had to stop herself from laughing at his sudden show of enthusiasm. He must have seen artwork before surely? She wondered how to say this politely.

"You really don't want to buy these," she said. "They don't compare in any way to some of the fine artwork you must have seen or owned?"

"It's not the quality of the sketch," Draco looked over at her. "It's how you've drawn the dragons. Even drawn this roughly it's easy to see the power and the movement. I feel like you've even captured their personalities." He handed Hermione her sketch of Hetty and pointed at it.

Hermione wasn't quite sure how to respond. No-one had ever reacted so favourably to her sketches before – in fact not even to her paintings! She understood now why he was so enthusiastic – because he loved how she had captured the dragons, not because he hadn't seen a decent sketch before.

"That's very kind of you to say," Hermione said. "I'm glad you like them."

Draco had sat back in his seat, his arms crossed. "You really are a dark horse, aren't you? You completely undersold how good your drawings are."

Hermione smiled. "I'm not good at taking compliments," she said.

"Well, here's a bit of practise for you," Draco said. "If your completed paintings are as good as these then I will buy all of them myself!"

Hermione's face must have shown how shocked she was at this lavish compliment. "So now I'm feeling the pressure!" she made a little joke.

"I interrupted you trying to go through these with me but we don't need to go through any details," Draco leant forward. "Honestly, I'm happy with what I can see here – I can tell that at a glance. I love the idea of painting Mavis flying and the close up of Humphrey is a great idea. You know what will look good background and lighting wise – I'm happy for you to take the lead."

Hermione stared at him. "That really isn't how this is usually done. You don't want any input at all?"

"No, I trust you." Draco produced one of his legendary smirks and for a moment she had a flashback of the boy she went to school with. It was obvious he'd said his last words for shock value – Draco Malfoy saying he trusted Hermione Granger! – but it was flattering nonetheless.

Hermione shook her head. "Easiest client consultation I've ever done!" she said.

"More wine?" Draco offered, rising to fetch the bottle.

"Oh, no thank you. If you really are sure about the decisions then I may as well let you get on with your evening," Hermione started to gather together the sketches.

"No need to rush off," Draco returned and filled both of their glasses. "What happens now – do you need us to arrange the sittings?" he asked.

"Yes please – I think I'd like to start with Mavis and yourself," Hermione said. She'd been surprised when he had said he would be drawn with Mavis. She knew he had a connection to her but she wasn't the most exciting or beautiful dragon and she had imagined that Draco would want his portrait to be with the most dramatic creature.

"Yes, that's would have been fine but I'm afraid I am going to have to split my time for the next few days," Draco paused and Hermione wasn't sure whether to ask why or not. While she was deciding, he spoke again. "My children are staying here for a couple of days so I hope you understand that I will need to spend some time with them."

Hermione tried not to show too much surprise at this. She'd only been questioning the absence of his children a few hours ago and now they were going to be here. She wondered if she would be allowed to meet them or if that would purposely be avoided.

"Of course, that's fine – I totally understand," she said desperately trying to decide if she could get away with asking about them. Draco carried on talking before she'd come to a conclusion.

"Obviously you must have known I had children…" Draco said uncertainly, "given our circumstances…."

"Yes, but I don't know anything at all about them. I haven't spoken one single word to Leo since the day he left me."

She saw Draco's eyebrows rise in surprise. "Really? Not a word?"

Hermione shook her head. "Nope, no contact whatsoever."

"But how did you sort out things…."

"He did it all through his friends and other 3rd parties," Hermione sighed. "It was one of the things that annoyed me the most to be honest. If you're going to cheat behind someone's back then at least have the courage to face them about it. I wouldn't have forgiven him but it would have shown he wasn't a complete worm."

Draco gave a small smirk at her terminology.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm sure you don't want to hear about all that. If it suits you better, I could go back to the studio for a few days and book in the sittings in a week or so?"

Draco shook his head. "No, there's no need for that. Luca – he's my eldest – he's interested in working with dragons himself so he likes to help out when he visits me here. He can come with me to the sitting if that would be okay with you? It might help as he can help control Mavis and I can stand still."

"Of course – that sounds like a great idea," Hermione said and she meant it. She was more than interested to meet Draco's children. "How old is Luca?"

"You don't know their names or ages or anything?" Draco asked, surprised.

"I don't even know how many children you have," Hermione answered him, twisting her lips. "I meant it when I said no contact, I don't know anything at all, I don't know how Leo and Eva met, I don't know why they wanted to be together, what they are doing now, I don't know if Leo is still an artist, I know nothing about what's happened since. I don't even know if they are still together – nothing but the odd rumour."

Draco filled up their wine glasses again before Hermione had a chance to refuse. "Do you want to know?"

Hermione shrugged. "I'm not sure to be honest. Maybe ignorance is bliss."

Draco leaned forward, looking at her intently. "I mean, do you want to know?"

She looked over at him puzzled. Why was he repeating the question? He leant back again. "I have regular contact with Eva, because of the children, so I know just about everything!" He said this with a triumphant tone and another little smirk and Hermione realised what he meant.

"Oh!" she said. "Oh! I see!"

"So, do you want me to tell you? Or would you rather remain in the dark?"

"Merlin! What a question!" Hermione bit her lip and took a large swig of her wine. "Of course, I want to know but then again, do I actually?"

Draco rolled his eyes at her. "Your decision."

"Is there anything juicy?" Hermione joked but she saw Draco's expression change. "There is, isn't there?"

"I can tell you all the humdrum details in a while if you want to hear them, but joking aside there is something I think you should know and I'm annoyed that neither of them thought to do you the courtesy of telling you. You shouldn't have to find this out some other way. In this case, yours truly being the other way!" Draco sounded annoyed. "It's really not my news to break."

Hermione sat forward in her chair, no longer joking having picked up on his tone. Her mind was racing through a million things he might be about to say, most of them bad. But in all honesty, she already knew what the news he was about to break to her was.

"Eva's pregnant," Draco spoke quietly. "They're having a baby together."