A/N: It only took 14 chapters, but here we are. I gave this chapter a different set up because you all already knew semi what was coming because of Hermione's plans. I enjoyed changing it up a bit for such a heavy chapter. So please, let me know if I nailed it or if I fell short. **Chapter starts at the end of Monday and then will jump to Monday morning. No chapter is missing** End notes will hold the real-life stories I pulled from.

Chapter 14, Aurora's Nursey School

Throwing herself onto her bed, Hermione buried her face in her pillow and let out a scream of frustration. What the fuck had this day become? A shit show, that's what. A peaking at her window made Hermione jump nervously, as she looked around until she realized that it was just an owl. Fuck, really don't want to think about who that could be from.

The day had been long and it had been hell. From dropping Aurora off at nursery school, to telling Draco, or at least starting to tell Draco about Aurora, and when Harry came bursting into her office. Okay, getting a little ahead of ourselves.

Oh good, it's a standard ministry owl. The ribbon attached to its leg let her know that this missive was of the upmost importance. Hermione couldn't stop the groan as she stood up and walked to the window it was perched at.

She opened the window to let the bird inside when another flew in with it. This one was Theo's red owl that she recognized instantly, but why would Theo be writing her at ten on a Monday night? Wonderful. Completely wonderful, well maybe Harry told him what a shit show of a day in full it was. That or Harry had just given Theo a full show of the complete mess.

Grabbing the missive from the ministry owl first to get it out of her bedroom. Hermione knew that Theo's owl, Holmes (Harry introduced Theo to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work), would be happy to sit with Knight and eat some feed before Hermione could get to his letter.

Dear Ms. Granger,

We are writing to inform you that this afternoon ten muggle children and two muggle adults had to be obliviated and memories altered at the business of Happy Bee's Nursery School. It is with our greatest displeasure that we ask you refrain from allowing the child in your care, Ms. Aurora Jean Malfoy, to return to such location again.

We also would state that any further incidents that require ministry involvement might result in further disciplinary action taken.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Misuse of Magic Office

Hermione's eyes darted over the short missive four times before it was able to sink in. Further disciplinary action? For accidental magic from a child? Also, real fast, how the fuck did her daughter's name get changed without her permission. And obviously she wasn't going to be sending Aurora back to that place, where the women were evil reincarnated.

Throwing the first letter down in frustration, she'd have to deal with this later, Hermione turned to the one that she'd taken off Holmes' leg and unrolled it.

Hermione,

I hope everything with Aurora is alright. Watson is out on a delivery, that's why I'm using Holmes to send you this.

Theo told me that Draco stopped by after I interrupted the two of you. He wouldn't tell me everything, but Draco is not very happy with any of us at the moment. Theo assured me that he felt Draco's emotions and that he was angry and hurt, but there was also some hope buried in him. I really don't know too much; Theo was being very cryptic. I just didn't want you to think that everything with Malfoy is dire, even if it might feel like it after today.

As for the nursery school, I got it all taken care. No need to worry. There's not going to be any last issues, but Hestia did say she'd like to meet with you tomorrow since you didn't come back with the rest of the team. I'll have the full incident report in your office for you to look over once you get in, but go to bed and stop screaming into your pillow like I know you've been doing since Rory went to bed.

I love you, tell Rory that Uncle Harry loves her most of all though,

Harry

Merlin have mercy, of course Draco would go barging over to Harry and Theo's flat when she just ran out on him. What would that even look like to be a fly on the wall? Theo and Draco having a sit down to talk about Aurora. Yes, that would be smashing wouldn't it have? It probably involved a lot of very unpleasant things said about her, not that she was going to blame either of them for their distrust of her. Fuck, she needed to get ahold of Draco.

Pacing back and forth in front of her desk, Hermione's brain was rolling with everything and what this could mean. Obviously, Draco was going to be mad at her. She would be if the roles were reversed. There was no questioning if it was bad or not, but fuck this is not at all how she'd wanted to tell him.

Entire day, straight in the trash. Just shoot an incendio at the bin and light it on fire. That would be the most accurate depletion. Trash on fire.

Hermione moved over to her desk and pulled out a bit of parchment and her quill to send off a note to someone she hoped would be able to help her. There was no guarantee, but maybe at least having something good happening. Yes, get at least one possible win for the day to give Aurora. Regardless of the messes of Hermione's own creation, she needed to still be proactive, for Aurora.

Jotting down her request, Hermione read it over and nodded, yes this would do just fine. Well, that was as long as she agreed to it. Hermione folded up the missive and addressed the envelope and walked up to Knight, giving him an affectionate scratch on the top of his head. "If no one answers, you can just leave it in their mail basket outside the window. No need to wait for a reply, I'll see you in the morning." A rustle of his wings with an affectionate brush against her cheek, and Knight was out the window into the dark.

Holmes, who had his fill of feed and water, hooted his own thanks and had taken off back out the window to either hunt or go back home. With the now empty room, Hermione could feel the exhaustion from the day starting to finally settle in. Hermione turned back to her bed to lay down when another tapping at her window brought her back around. An unknown large grey eagle owl was standing at her window waiting on her to answer. Scrambling off her bed, Hermione threw open the window to let the new bird inside. It swooped over to her and held out its leg for her to remove the attached letter. After she'd gotten the letter off, the bird bit her finger drawing blood and soared back out the way it had come without waiting for any reply.

Looking down at her injured finger, Hermione had a feeling who this much too expensive stationary had come from. The perfect scrawl of her address and name on the front made her cringe a bit flipping it over and seeing the wax seal from the house of Malfoy. Fuck.

Granger,

There aren't words to express how I feel. Anger, betrayal, deceived are just a few that come to mind, but they aren't strong enough for what I truly feel for you in this moment. I want to believe that you couldn't withhold something of this magnitude from me, but you have. I want to believe that we were close enough that you would have trusted me with the truth, but you didn't. I want to believe that you would never hurt me the most, but you did. I am now left to question if what I've always thought I knew about you to be a lie, all the traits I saw in you that I admired, were all just a false face you wore for the world.

I have already taken the liberty to confirm with MACUSA birth records and had a copy of our daughter's birth certificate transferred to my solicitor for review. I have also taken the liberty and signed my name on the record to acknowledge paternity. This is the first of many steps to making Aurora my legitimate heir, and I fully intend to do so in the upcoming months. Her name now reflexes the acknowledgment that I did sire her, and thus her name has, for all legal purposes, been changed to Aurora Jean Malfoy. I would apologize for my actions, but I feel no remorse for moving forward with protecting a future relationship between myself and my daughter from your interference.

We will be having further conversations about what has happened, but there has been an incident that requires my presence out of the country. I will be back in time for the start of Borgin's Trial on Thursday, but not before. Perhaps we could set up another time, outside office hours, to meet and discuss our shared child.

D.M.

Okay, so let's not overreact. He just went and signed her birth certificate, without saying anything about doing that with her first. Managed to change their daughter's name without her consent? Did he really think that after she told him about Aurora, she'd deny them a future relationship? If she was planning on denying him a relationship with her, Hermione would never have even told him to begin with! They were going to have to have a long discussion about what their co-parenting relationship was going to look like, because him going and doing something like this behind her back was crossing a line. Yes, she'd crossed lines too, but this was changing a little girl's entire identity without discussing it with her first.

Also, what did he mean he would be out of the country until Thursday? What in the world could happen that would pull him away in the middle of what all was happening? She knew that he couldn't be leaving in the middle of the Borgin case, he was the lead prosecutor and there was so much work to be done before Thursday! Obviously, that was none of her business, but still.

A thought hit Hermione like a truck. Oh gods, what if him signing her birth certificate could have alerted his parents to Aurora's existence? The thought hit her like a lightning bolt, throwing off any exhaustion that had once settled in her body, Hermione couldn't sit still.

Pacing her room, Hermione eventually concluded that she needed to relax and sleep. Working herself into a panic wouldn't do her any good. Hermione needed her mind cleared and able to function so that she didn't make any mistakes.

Walking into her bathroom to grab one of her bottles of calming draft, Hermione pulled off the top and downed it. Jut a small dose, that would be all she would need to get through the evening. It wasn't as if she was going to fall back into abusing it like she had after directly after the war. No, this was just to help get her though the night.

Laying her head back on her pillow, Hermione's mind was able to settle enough so that she could close her eyes and drift off, to prepare herself for what was to come tomorrow.

ooo

Fifteen Hours Earlier

Hermione was rushing out her door with Aurora's bag slung over her arm and said child trailing behind her as they quickly made their way over to her parents' house.

"Now, remember what did mummy say about using magic or talking about magic?" Hermione asked looking over Aurora's outfit to make sure that everything was in place. A pair of jean shorts with butterflies embroidered on them and a purple hooded short sleeve shirt with white butterflies on the front. She was lacking in her normal pizzazz, but maybe being the new kid would be enough for Aurora today.

Hermione had also managed to convince Aurora to let Hermione put her hair into a pair of pigtails on the top of her head, that were so long they still hung halfway down Aurora's back. Aurora's usual look of her wild white blond mane drew just too much attention, so taming it was another of Hermione's way of trying to let her blend in with the other kids.

Being a veela, the thought of Aurora blending in was laughable. She was born to stand out.

"That my new teachers and friends are like Gran and Papa and don't have magic." Hermione reminded her daughter as Aurora bound through the front door that Helen had just thrown open. Aurora, it seemed hadn't heard Hermione's continued warning, but instead was beaming at Helen telling Aurora just how adorable she looked.

"Mummy said no tutu or sparkles today." Aurora stated as she twirled past Helen and further into the house out of Hermione's sight.

"Mother, are you sure that you don't need me to come along with drop off? I can let Harry know that I'll just be a bit later, it's no problem." Aurora's screams of joy as Roger chased her roaring were ringing through the house, not putting Hermione at ass at ease. Hermione stood on her toes to try and look around her mother, but was shooed out the door.

"I know you're worried about her using her magic at school, but honestly Hermione, I've taken her so many places with no issues. Plus, she's been to that gym daycare while I did Zumba for that month and she never had an issue. She'll be fine Hermione, stop worrying and go to work." Helen held out her hand waiting for Aurora's new backpack and Hermione shook her head with a sigh as she handed it over.

"If anything happens, call Theo. I have no cell service in the ministry so don't even bother trying for me first. He'll be able to get ahold of me and I'll floo straight from my department home. Anything, mother, alright. Even if it's she doesn't take her nap or eat her lunch, you know how quickly her mood can change." Hermione again tried looking around her mother, but was again shooed out the door while Hermione yelled one last time to Aurora letting her know how much she loved her. The response she got was a roar, translated by her father to mean 'I love you too'.

Shaking her head, Hermione walked away from her parents' house and back to her own so that she could use the floo to get to work. Hermione snatched the photo album that she'd put together of Aurora's life to give to Draco and shoved it into her tote. Yup, she was really going to do this. She was telling him this afternoon. One last reminded to be brave, and Hermione was ready to leave.

Hermione flooed into the ministry atrium and hadn't even managed to step out of the fireplace before she ran face first into the blond that she'd last seen in the reflection of the mirror of the bathroom at the Three Broomstick. "Fuck, watch it. Oh, Granger. Fancy running into you here. Early morning?" Draco had reached out and steadied her so that she hadn't fallen over when they collided.

"Oh, well, we have that, uh, meeting this afternoon and well I have to get a few things sorted this morning." Hermione commented looking up from his hands still on her arms up into his eyes. He had a soft smile on his face that had extended all the way into his eyes. Fucking hell, when was going to be the next time she saw him look at her like this? Never, the answer was probably never again.

"I've got to go, but this afternoon. Your office." Draco had released her and was walking away backwards still smiling at her before he turned and jogged to catch up with a couple members of the Wizengamot that she couldn't name off the top of her head.

Fuck, she needed Harry.

Hermione just went through the motions of riding the lift and going by her office to drop off all her things before she found herself sitting across from her friend. Who happened to be holding a hot water bottle to his head and his glasses had been tinted to obscure the lights in his office. As Hermione looked him over, she couldn't help but shaking her head at her friend with a sigh.

"You cannot possibly still be hungover from Saturday." Hermione said commenting on the state her friend was in. "It's Monday, you do realize that. What, did you and Theo spend all yesterday day drinking? Gods, Harry, I can smell the gin coming from your pores over here." Harry's only response was a groan making Hermione roll her eyes.

"Well, I need you. Aurora's first day of nursery school is today and I'm telling Draco about her this afternoon. So, we have a double dose of worse case scenario that needs to be held, now." Harry responded by shaking his head and groaning. "Yes Harry, it needs to be held now. Otherwise I won't be able to leave your office for the full day and neither of us is going to get any work done." With this, Harry bent down to where his desk drawers where and she could hear glasses and jars clanging until Harry sat up holding two vials of hangover potion in his hand.

Harry winced as he pulled the lids off both and downed them each at once. "Gods, I swear they make these taste horrible on purpose. Okay, you go first while these kick in." Harry motioned at her with his hand while he closed his eyes to take a few deep breaths waiting for the potions to cure his hangover.

"Right," Hermione started knowing that Harry was only partly listening to her. "Worse case, Aurora goes to school and she uses a fireball to destroy the entire building because someone tries to touch her dragon and then she's banned from attending Hogwarts and I'm fired from my job and cast away from the wizarding world for allowing her to go to muggle nursery school knowing she's a veela. My parents and I have to go to Australia and we never see you, Theo, or any of our friends ever again.

"Worse case with Draco, he doesn't believe me and refuses to ever speak to me again and Aurora never gets to meet her father. She grows up resenting me for being the only parent that raised her and ultimately shuts me out of her life. I retire from a dead-end ministry job and only have a house full of cats to keep me company and the distant memories of what my life once was and the dreams of what it could have been." Hermione grabbed the cup of coffee in front of her and took a long swig not even wincing as the hot liquid burned its way down her throat.

Harry looked up from his hands for only a second before putting his head back down taking a deep breath. "Worse case, Aurora gets a boyfriend and I have to threaten to beat up a four-year-old boy. Worse case for Draco, his father finds out." Harry was still rubbing his fingers at the corners of his eyes making Hermione let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Honestly Harry, that's the best you've got?" She asked him watching him roll his neck as the potion finally took away his hangover.

"Fine, fine. You're right. That's not nearly as depressing as you need. Alright, Aurora goes to nursery school and she unleashes her veela abilities that have already begun to manifest, on accident, and the ministry has to dispatch a team to obliviate the entire school. Then, because there's always a leak at the ministry, someone leaks to the press that you not only have a daughter, but that she's a veela. Once a picture is found, then the Malfoys all find out that Malfoy is her father. Then, I have to force a security detail on Aurora for the remainder of her childhood to keep her safe.

"Draco, he never forgives you for keeping Aurora from him and is granted sole custody of her so that you are only ever given visitation and Astoria becomes her full-time mother." Hermione's jaw dropped as she watched Harry rub his chin thinking over what he just said. "Yes, that's much worse." He deduced looking back to Hermione, who just nodded her head in agreement that was much worse than his first go.

"I'm not able to send Aurora to muggle schools ever again, and she has to get a private tutor until she goes off to Hogwarts and never learns about her muggle heritage. Applies to both." Hermione put her head in her hands and closed her eyes.

"You know," Harry said, reaching over and covering her hands with his, "Theo is sitting and waiting by his phone all day just in case Helen calls. Anything happens, we'll be able to get you to Aurora. Nothing's going to happen though, because she's going to be just fine, Hermione. Draco's going to be mad at you, but he will forgive you, just know that it won't be today." Harry's hands cupped her face, forcing her head out of her hands so that she was looking into his green eyes. "Okay?"

"Okay" she agreed with a nod of her head.

Hermione left Harry's office shortly after that and went about the rest of her day felt more like she was in a fog and just drifting through the motions. At lunch, she left the ministry to call Aurora's nursery school to check on her and was assured by her teacher that everything was just fine. She did mention that there were a few kids that were drawn into Aurora and she'd made fast friends with everyone.

Hermione had somehow managed to get a bit of work done, including a conversation with Rachel that ended in a detailed description of Charlie's prick. When Hermione had unceremoniously thrown Rachel from her office for being a perve, Kenneth had stopped in to drop off the activity log Seamus and Sasha had collected from watching the entrance to the black-market trading center she'd pointed them in the direction of. They had included a note asking if she could join them later in the week on a stake out to see if she could get them in.

This was what Hermione was reviewing when a knock at her door made her heart rate spike. Slowly looking up from her work, Hermione forced a smile onto her face as Draco walked into her office shutting the door behind him with a smirk on his face. "Hey Granger. I'm guessing this is a mix of work and pleasure since you boxed out the last three hours of the day. Ingrid had a lot of questions, but I told her we had a new case I might be taking over to discuss."

Draco had already rounded her desk and tilted her face up towards his lowering his lips, kissing her like she was a lifeline. Without alcohol clouding her judgment, Hermione held in the sigh that was threatening her from the feel of his lips on hers. Knowing that she couldn't put this off any longer though, Hermione lifted her hands to Draco's chest and gently nudged him back. His lips were still brushing against hers when she murmured "we need to talk, Draco."

It was as if Hermione had dumped cold water on him with how ridged he suddenly went. "Right, I suppose that's fair." He quickly agreed pulling his face away from hers. After another breath, Draco completely removed himself from Hermione's side of the desk so that he was seated across from her with his back straight.

"Look, Draco. The thing is…" Hermione started, but Draco held up his hand to stop her.

"Granger, I know. This is wrong and we shouldn't be doing this because I'm still married to Astoria. Honestly Grange, I haven't been able to stop thinking 'what if' for more years than I dare to count. Even when you were with Weasley, I'd think what if they were to break up and I got my chance with her. Only, it seemed like the closer we grew as friends, the harder you clung to your relationship with him. Then you finally did end things with Weasley, but you moved and I decided I'd bury everything away. My father told me his plans to marry me off, and I just accepted it for what it was and didn't fight it. When we got together at Theo and Harry's wedding, I figured that was our chance to give this a real shot."

"Draco, about Harry and Theo's wedding…" Hermione tried to interrupt, but Draco held up his hand to silence her again as tears began to prick in her eyes.

"I get it, you were scared. I mean, we used Pansy as a buffer to still try and keep each other at arm's length. I get why you ran that morning, and I get why you didn't talk to me when I saw you months later. I understand that I gave you the wrong impression all those years ago." Hermione couldn't stop the tear that fell from her eye, fucking traitor.

"Yes, well, Draco, the thing is…" Hermione tried again to take the opening as her voice cracked.

"I was engaged, and I can't blame you go not wanting to get messed up with that. We have another chance, now. Things with Astoria have never been good, and my entire marriage is a scam. I know this isn't ideal, but…" Hermione slammed her hands down on her desk cutting Draco off. She couldn't hear anymore. She had to say it now before he admitted anymore of his feelings towards her. She could handle him hating her, but knowing what she was going to lose from him was too much.

"Draco, stop talking and listen to me." The tears were already trailing down her face as Draco looked on with concern at her outburst. "Draco, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Hermione summoned the remainder of her Gryffindor courage and met his gaze with blurred vision.

"Draco, the night of Harry and Theo's wedding, I ended up pregnant with my," deep breath and a pause "our, daughter. We have a daughter, Draco. I named her Aurora Jean; she was born the ninth of May at a hospital in New York City the following year. I brought, well, I brought a photo album." Hermione stopped looking at Draco to dig through her tote and pulled out the thick album she'd spent all the previous day working on to fill with moments, memories, and milestones that she'd denied Draco to be a part of.

Hermione chanced a glance at Draco's face and saw that he'd slightly paled, and looked like he might be in shock. Taking his silence as an advantage, Hermione carried on. "Harry and Theo are both her godfathers; I never named a godmother. No one knew you were her father, well I mean I told Harry and Theo last week after I found out she's a veela and I was freaking out. Oh, and I guess I confessed to my dad a few weeks ago, but otherwise no one else knows. I told everyone that her father was a muggle that I never got the name of, and with her birth record being in New York it was easy enough to keep up the lie."

Looking back up at him, Draco still looked like he was in shock and processing what she'd said and unable to speak. When Hermione took another breath to continue on her story, she was interrupted by Harry bursting into her office looking frantic.

"Hermione! Theo just called, something happened at the nursery school. Your mom is frantic and apparently the fire department has been called out and they are saying that it looks like a small explosion went off in Aurora's classroom. Hermione, we've got to go. Now."

Explosion? Aurora's classroom?

It felt like all the air had been sucked from her office and Hermione's body just went into motion without any conscious thought by herself. Rising from her chair and running after Harry, right on his heels as they tore across the department. As soon as they were in Hestia's office, Hermione was at the fireplace calling her home address and gone.

She'd hardly stepped out before Harry exited into her sitting room behind her. Running out of the house towards her mother who was franticly pacing next to her car with her cellphone in hand. "HERMIONE!" Helen called as soon as her eyes laid on her daughter.

"Mother, what happened?!" Hermione demanded ignoring Harry going into Auror mode also trying to get some information to pass along to the MLE.

"I don't, I don't know. The school called and said there was an explosion in her classroom. oh my god, Hermione, I'm so sorry. I thought everything would be fine. She's always been fine going out with me. I don't know what I was thinking. Oh my god, Hermione what if something happened to her?!" Helen dissolved into hysterical tears unable to communicate any thing else, so Hermione turned away from her and to her best friend.

"Come on." Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and apparated them to an alley across the street from Aurora's school. They could hear sirens blaring down the street as they looked at the building that had smoke billowing from it. Hermione and Harry quickly crossed the street and run towards the crowd that had already started to gather.

Hermione searched around and quickly found Aurora standing with a woman who was crouched down in front of her, causing Aurora's frantic tears to only worsen. "What did you do? You are a bad girl; you lit that fire in the classroom, didn't you? You hurt all these people. Now, tell the truth, you little monster! Tell me what you are!" Hermione could hear the woman hissing at the hysterical child.

"EXCUSE ME!" Hermione roared at the woman as she stepped between them and scooped Aurora into her arms, blocking her from the woman's view.

"Excuse me? Excuse you, you can't just come walking up here. Who do you think you are!? I could have you arrested for attempted kidnapping!" The woman said reaching out her arms and attempting to take Aurora back from Hermione.

"I AM HER MOTHER!" Hermione yelled at the woman, who still did not stop in her efforts to attempt to take Aurora back from her.

"There's no possible way that you could be her mother, now give her back! POLICE! POLICE, HELP!" The woman began to yell, drawing attention from a few people in the crowd closest to them. Hermione pulled out her wand, keeping it out of sight, and pointed it at the woman.

"Confundo." Hermione whispered at her; the woman's eye glazed over once the pink smoke reached her face. For a moment before she looked back between Hermione and Aurora as if trying to place them before walking away without another word.

Hermione glanced around to make sure no one watching had noticed her wand. When she was confident that no one had, she jogged back across the street where her and Harry had first apparated to and hid slightly out of sight waiting on Harry to rejoin them. It didn't take but another five minutes, in which time Aurora had fallen asleep against Hermione's chest, when Harry came running back over to her.

"We won't be able to cover up with the ministry that it was Aurora who caused this, but only the kids in her class and her two teachers saw her. The kids are all shaken up and not speaking, but it sounds like Aurora shot a fireball into a microwave after a teacher took her dragon away from her. The damage in the classroom, she had to have thrown up a shield charm to protect everyone because the damage is bad. Here, I found this in the wreckage." Harry handed over a slightly dirty, but otherwise perfectly fine, stuffed dragon.

"Mione, she won't be able to come back here. Not after, well that." Harry turned and pointed out the hole in the wall of what used to be Aurora's classroom.

"Fuck… Okay, I'm going to get her home. Do you need me to come back, or do you think your team can handle this?" Hermione asked taking the dragon in her hand and adjusting her hold on Aurora.

"No, we should be fine. We'll get their memories altered and I'll give you the full report tomorrow." Harry leaned in and kissed the crown of Aurora's head before turning to go back across the street.

Turning on the spot, Hermione held Aurora tighter to her chest and apparated the two of them home with a crack. Aurora woke up from the pressure of apparition crying and threw up where they'd landed in the yard. With tear filled eyes Aurora looked up at her mother and threw her arms around Hermione's neck as she broke down into tears. "I'm sorry mummy, she took dragon and I just got so mad at her. I'm sorry." Aurora cried into Hermione's neck.

Helen and Roger, who must have heard the crack signaling their return, had come running out of their house over to where Hermione and Aurora still stood holding each other crying. Helen reached them first and threw her arms around both Hermione and Aurora, closely followed by Roger who held all three in his embrace.

She was safe. That's all that mattered. The rest could wait.

ooo

Theo Potter

Theo had been walking in a circle around his dining room table ever since he'd gotten that call from Helen. Before they'd even gotten off the phone, Theo had sent his fox patronus to Harry, letting him know what was happening. Now, he was left waiting for any news from his husband on what was happening with Aurora.

As Theo was making another round when a silver stag had just burst through the dining room with Harry's message "everyone's alright, I'll tell you everything when I get home. I'll be late, but I love you." Theo dropped into the nearest seat and let his head sag into his hands taking in deep breaths of relief that Aurora was safe.

His breathing had hardly evened out when the chime of his floo startled Theo, and he jumped up to go see who had just come to his flat. Theo was rendered speechless for the second time that day when he saw Draco standing looking at him clutching what looked like a very large photo album he recognized from Hermione's house. She'd told him.

"You knew, you knew this whole time, didn't you?" Theo didn't have to clarify what his best friend was talking about, it was obvious.

"Suspected, but didn't know for sure until last week." There was no point in playing games and asking what Draco was talking about. Theo could feel the rage pouring off his friend, but more than that, his pain was cutting right through into Theo's heart, making him want to double over.

"How could you not know. LOOK AT HER, THEO! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME!" Draco had opened the album and shoved it into Theo's hands. Looking down, the imagine was of the first time he ever held Aurora. Hermione had just shoved the infant into his arms after he'd protested that he wasn't going to hold a human so tiny and she'd ran off for the loo leaving him and Harry alone with her. Harry had been laughing at Theo's helplessness, as he looked between his brand-new goddaughter and his husband.

Just looking at her had rendered Theo speechless. He'd seen it before he'd even held her that she was Draco's daughter, but he had fallen so in love with her. He'd decided if Hermione was denying Draco so much that he wouldn't push her and possibly lose the chance to be in this little girl's life. She couldn't even hold her own head up, and she'd already wrapped Theo around her tiny finger that he would do anything to stay in her life. Looking back, maybe that had been a mistake.

"What are you going to do?" Theo asked instead, looking back up at his friend.

"I already had my solicitor get a copy her birth records transferred here for me to sign. I can't trust Hermione, she lied to me all these years. I have to make sure she can't keep my daughter from me anymore." Draco had dropped onto the sofa in the sitting room, still holding the album flipping through the pages.

"How much have you talked to Hermione?" Theo asked.

"None, she was in the middle of telling me about Aurora when Harry came in. Speaking of, have you heard if everything is okay?" Draco looked up desperately into Theo's eyes and Theo couldn't fend off the waves of fear and the disastrous imagines that were flooding him as his best friend thought about Harry bursting into the office with his message. Hermione running out of the office without saying anything to Draco while he was left sitting at her desk in shock and alone. No one had thought to contact Draco and tell him that his newly discovered daughter was okay, and that was just another layer of hurt coming off him. Gods Hermione, what have you done?

"Everything is fine, I don't have details, but Harry said no one is hurt." Theo explained and instantly some calm waved over Draco, before his occlumency walls seemed to go up blocking Theo completely out.

"Good, that's really good. I got a call from the center Astoria's at. She tried escaping, so I'm going to have to go deal with her for a few days. Um, I'm going to write Hermione to let her know that I'll talk to her later this week when I get back. I've got to go." Theo didn't say another word as Draco stood, still holding the photo album and walked back through the floo.

Hm, curious. Talking about Hermione, Theo knew had felt a slight flare of hope coming off Draco. Perhaps, if she wasn't foolish, they would be able to work through this.

A/N: This chapter was actually inspired by a few events. The first being why I'm a stay-at-home mom. How horrible the nursery teacher treated Aurora actually reflects what happened to my son where his teacher was awful to him.

The other thing I pulled from my real life, is when Hermione has to yell that she is her mother. I've mentioned I have PTSD, so right after the incident that caused it, I was out shopping with my daughter and she was having a meltdown. I was 18 when I had her, and I've always looked younger than I really am (makes things worse in this case). I ended up having to take her out to the car and a woman walked up to me trying to accuse me of harming my daughter (I was trying to take her out of a cart and put her into her car seat) because she was hysterically crying. She asked me where her mother was and I yelled at her that I am her mother, and turned back to getting into the car with my daughter. The woman said that I wasn't old enough to be her mother, and I turned around and got in this woman's face and screamed go fuck yourself. Shocked my daughter enough that I was able to snatch her out of the cart and climb into the car with her. Did I mention this stranger was like 80? Yeah. I told an 80yo woman to go fuck herself.

Alright, next chapter is more drama. Draco's not in town and Hermione's got to meet with the department head. What else can go wrong?