As Hermione now started to live in the Malfoy Manor, she had access to almost everything in the house, from flyers to bills, from documents to delivery. What Lucius would do every evening was that he would sit in front of the computer and check his bank accounts, whether there be transactions on the day. Hermione was not a particularly nosy person but Lucius was eager in letting her see his bank statements. He would invite her to sit next to him and allow her to understand his daily transactions, as though he was afraid that Hermione would not trust him.

It was one Friday evening when Lucius logged into his personal account and had to leave the study for a moment. Hermione's eyes fixed on the screen. Rows and rows of transactions were presented neatly in the middle. Many of them were just restaurants that they dined in, or shops they had made any purchases.

There was one row that stood out to her. An automatic payment transfer of eight hundred pounds with the note "For her. Out of interest, she clicked onto the previous months. On the tenth day of every month, eight hundred pounds would be transfer to this "her" person, and this had been done for years. Hermione thought for a while. Who could it be? She first thought of Narcissa, but it did not make any sense to her. Lucius had no reason to pay her using a private account. She checked the bank statements files which were on the top shelves of the book case. A quick flip through revealed that this payment started twenty-four years ago. Strangely, it started in the same year that Diana was born, and the month right after she was born. Hermione wished to believe that it was purely a coincidence, but she remembered that Diana and Lucius knew each other, and they were not on good terms, at least this was what she had observed. She opened the drawer which had Lemures' photo. When she picked it up, she noticed a small leather notebook that seemed untouched for many years. It was so untouched that dust had collected on top. She dusted it as she picked it up, and flipped through it. She flipped to the first page of the notebook, trying to see who was the owner of the notebook. The name "Caitlin" was written on it. Drawings were on every page of the notebook. Every one of them was drawings about dishes, and almost every page had seafood dishes. On one page, she even drew the environment around the table. There was a painting on the wall in the drawing that looked very familiar. She looked up and spotted the exact same painting on the wall. A sunflower painting. She walked across the room to examine the painting. It was a bit tilted so out of perfectionism, Hermione tugged it to the right angle.

A photo fell out of the notebook. It was another photo of Lemures, but this was a different photo. Even though the lady beside him was the same one she had seen before, this time she had a newborn baby in her arms. That baby looked somehow like her, as her mother had shown her the photos before. She turned to the back, it had the date written on it. It was twenty-four years ago, Hermione was three years old then, it could not be her. Could it possibly be Caitlin who was in the photo? It did not make sense, however. Caitlin had no children, and Draco was born in the same year as her. Who could this baby be?

Then she thought of something that would not make sense but theoretically it could happen. She picked up her phone and dialled her mother's phone number.

"Mother?" said Hermione.

"Hermione! That was a surprise—"

"Mother, do you know a person called Lemures?"

"Hmm…it does ring a bell, but I don't remember anything about this person," said her mother. "Where did you hear this name?"

"Lemures Malfoy, the brother of Lucius."

There was a moment of silence. Then her mother said, "Oh, it's just an old friend."

"Mother. I want to know the truth."

Her mother did not answer. Instead, she let a sigh. So Hermione sent the photo to her mother on the phone.

"Mother, did you know Lemures?"

"No…but yes," said her mother. "This is my twin sister Rebecca."

"Rebecca?" asked Hermione. "Aunt Rebecca?"

"Diana is Rebecca's daughter."

Hermione's heart almost stopped beating.

"What?"

"Lemures is Diana's father."

Hermione could hardly believe what she had heard.

"So why didn't Diana live with Aunt Rebecca then?" asked Hermione. "And why Lemures—he was married to Zelina. I'm confused…"

"Rebecca has almost loved gambling," said her mother. "Lucius was afraid that it would lead to a bad upbringing for Diana, and he was also afraid that it would destroy Lemures' marriage, so he gave Diana to us, and paid Rebecca a large sum. Every month since then, Lucius would pay us to take care of Diana. I already told him he did not need to pay but he insisted. He's still sending money to us."

"…does Diana know about this?"

"She overheard it one time when I was talking to a friend," said her mother. "She thought Lucius who took away everything from her. She had always told me she could have been a Malfoy too, if it had not been him."

Hermione could finally understand why Lucius always helped Diana whatever accidents occurred. Very likely it was out of guilt and sympathy.

"Mother, I will talk to you later."

As soon she hung up, she raced out of the study, down the stairs and found Lucius coming out from the living room. She pounced on him and gave him a tight embrace. Lucius was a bit taken aback, but still he put his arm around her and his fingers fondled her curls.

"My family owns you so much," said Hermione, almost on the verge of crying. "I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know, I know everything. I know Lemures, I know Aunt Rebecca, I know Diana. I—I—you don't have to do this—"

Lucius hugged her tighter and planted a kiss on her temple, then said, "Don't worry. Everything is fine."

"I need to talk to Diana and settle this once and for all."

"Do you want me to accompany you—"

"No, no. I can manage. I can do this myself."


Finally we know what is going on with Diana...Let's see what she and Hermione would do in the next chapter (which probably won't be uploaded for quite a while since I will be busy again.)