Chapter 28
Gemini felt a pressure on her hand. Like someone was gripping it so tightly it was closing in on painful. Still her eyelids felt so heavy and her mind felt like it was filled with cotton. She could hear a muffled conversation going on around her.
"How long till she wakes up do you think Pomphrey? I know Hermione said it could be as early tomorrow morning, but could she wake up sooner? If so I should probably go. I mean I've already caused tension between her and Aries the last thing I want to do is cause more issues." Said a male voice Gemini had never heard before but it was strangely comforting.
"I really can't say. The body heals at different speeds. The chances are quite slim that she will wake up this evening however." Pomphrey replied.
"I don't want to leave her. I should wait for Hermione any way. She's beautiful, isn't she? I just-man I have a daughter and she's beautiful." The awe was plain as day in the man's voice.
He was talking about her? He called her his daughter? Her dad was there?! Gemini started to try and fight against the cotton in her mind and lift the heavy weight of her eyelids, but they remained firmly in place. She wanted to see him! She wanted to talk to him. After all this time she wanted to finally put a face to the mysterious man she had built from her mother's tales. Unfortunately, her body didn't agree with her mind and remained firmly in place, holding her hostage in its foggy cage.
Hermione finally managed to drag her hopeless body off the floor of the Astronomy tower and trekked back to the hospital wing. At least Gemini didn't hate her, well at least not yet. All she wanted was to lay down next to her daughter and fall asleep. Maybe in the morning Gemini would wake up.
She paused in the doorway of the hospital wing and listened to the reverence in Draco's voice as he said that he had a daughter. The sight brought her back to the first time she had held Aries and Gemini and how much she had wished Draco was there to share that moment. Harry had told her that when she held the twins for the first time that he could see her magic swirling and embracing their magic. Hermione had laughed him off and told him he was crazy but now looking at Draco and Gemini she could see it. She could see Draco's magic shimmering in the air around him stretching and searching for Gemini's.
Taking in the scene finally showed Hermione how cowardly she had been all these years. In the beginning Draco had been an ass and it made sense not to tell him but he had told her so many times that he wanted children. That he wanted to be a better more present father than his own. She always told herself that she was keeping Aries and Gemini safe and protected by hiding their father from them but watching Draco she realized she was protecting herself. What if they loved him more? He could give them so much more than she could and within the backwards wizarding community Draco could have ripped them away from her without a second glance. So she'd lied. She'd told her children that their dad hadn't been ready for a family and had moved away. She hadn't thought that it would make a big impression on them. But Aries words about how they had wished for their dad to come back for years proved that she had caused more harm than good.
Unwilling to break the moment that Draco was sharing with her daughter, no not her daughter, THEIR daughter, Hermione contented herself with watching how gentle Draco was being with Gemini. He was treating her like she was something precious and delicate. He seemed to second guess every word or motion he made. It made her laugh a little bit because he was acting the same way most new parents act around a new baby.
At her laughter Draco's gaze snapped to her and he tried to pull his hand from Gemini's guiltily.
"Ah, I'm sorry. You said that I could do anything I wanted. I-I just wanted to see her Hermione. She's asleep so it's not like she'll ever know I was here if you don't want her too." Hermione opened her mouth to respond but Draco waved her off, "I'm so sorry Hermione. Since finding out about them I got angry. I couldn't get past the fact that you didn't tell me. But as I was walking over here to see her it hit me: She's a stranger to me. It never hit me before. I kept telling you that they were our kids, but can I really call them mine when I haven't had anything to do with how they've grown or the people they're becoming?" Draco got a far a way look in his eyes as he trailed off.
Hermione shook her head trying to dislodge the lump that had formed at his words and moved to his side.
"I never gave you a chance. It's not your fault that you don't know them. I was selfish and scared. With a wave of your hand you could have taken them away. I know I said that I wasn't sure if you would want them but that was a lie. I knew you would want them. Would want to be a part of their lives but at the time I didn't think you would want me. With how wizard laws work you could have claimed them as your heirs because they were born before Scorpius and I would have had no retaliation. You had a stable family setting and I was just a single mother who's work kept her away from home more than I care to admit. I thought you would bar me from seeing them, so I guess I barred you. As time passed it became easier to pretend that it was them I was protecting and the guilt over keeping them from you eased. I'm sorry Draco. I am so sorry." Hermione sobbed after finally owning up to her deepest shame.
Draco tried to wrap both of his arms around her but hand in Gemini's refused to move. Draco looked down and realized he wasn't the one refusing to release. Gemini's hand was holding his hostage. He looked up at her face and his heart stopped. Gazing back at him were the one of the most amazing set of golden-brown eyes he had ever seen.
"Daddy?" Gemini croaked out from her very dry throat.
Aries didn't know where he was going. He didn't even realize how far he had gone until he found himself in front of the potions classroom. He walked into the room and just looked around. This was where Professor Slughorn found Gemini. Beaten and bloody on the floor. Aries walked the classroom trying to figure out where exactly she had been. The floor was perfectly clean no signs at all that something so awful had happened at all. No clues as to who did it. Nothing!
Aries cried out in rage wrenching open the ingredient cabinet and reaching the closest full jar. He grabbed it and held it over his head and hurled it towards the ground as hard as he could. The sound of the glass shattering and the contents spilling across the cobblestone echoed off the stone walls. His rage propelled him to grab more and more jars creating a giant mess around him but even as he ran out of containers his rage just remained. Simmering in his blood like its own dark entity rising and consuming him. Soon he was opening more and more cabinets and destroy those contents as well.
"Hey!" Scorpius called out from the doorway causing Aries to freeze.
"Go away." Aries sneered before returning to his destruction.
"Look you need to stop. I know your life is all kinds of crazy and you are probably losing your mind, but I found out some stuff about the people that hurt Mimi alright. But I am not telling you anything unless you stop this!" Scorpius called out over the noise.
Aries froze again and turned towards Scorpius. Scorpius found something out. Scorpius had done something for Gemini where he couldn't. Scorpius who Aries father, who Aries had never even met, raised from childhood. Scorpius who was quickly replacing him in Gemini's affections. All his rage crashed over him submerging his rational mind within its furious grasp and he launched himself at Scorpius.
Scorpius had no idea why Aries was attacking him, but he tried to gain control without hurting Aries. They struggled against each other rolling around amongst the broken glass and ingredients.
"Woah! Get off each other! GOD!" Alec exclaimed rushing over and trying to separate them.
However, Alec didn't exactly realize just how slippery the floor was and slipped toppling into the middle of Scorpius and Aries's fight. Finally, Alec managed to pull the two apart having to hang on to Aries.
"Alright you two what the hell is going on!" Alec exclaimed struggling to keep Aries from lunging towards Scorpius.
"I have no idea! He just started swinging at me when I told him that I had info on the group that hurt Gemini. He's insane!" Scorpius announced clutching his aching side.
"Stay the hell away from my sister! We don't need you or your filthy family!" Aries snapped.
"What the heck man?! I thought we were all getting along. Gemini's our friend and don't you dare go after my family!" Scorpius growled back.
"My sister shouldn't have anything to do with you. You're probably why she got attacked in the first place! Stay away from her. I will figure out what happened by myself! We don't need you!" Aries bellowed.
"ALRIGHT! Calm down. I have no idea what the hell is going on with you Aries but if Scor knows something why wouldn't you want to know? Also, I found out some stuff too alright. We are not going to just drop this because you tell us to. We care about her too man. You need to go chill out. We can talk about this later alright?" Alec states trying to calm Aries down.
Suddenly all the rage started to dissipate, and Aries just relaxed into Alec's grip. He was so tired and just emotionally empty.
"Here just let us get you back to your common room okay? We can talk about this all tomorrow." Alec said maneuvering Aries towards the doorway.
Aries just nodded and Alec looked back at Scorpius who just scoffed and headed back to the Slytherin common rooms to lick his wounds. Alec rolled his eyes but then managed to get a very unsteady Aries back to the Gryffindor common rooms. On his way back he tried to figure out what could have upset him so much but then he figured Aries would tell them in the morning. Hopefully along with an apology for Scorpius.
