A/N: Surprise, insomnia hit and I thought about the fact that there would probably only be time for one chapter next week, and decided I'd make this week a three chapter week.

I know, I really am a saint. This chapter is one of my favorites. Gah.. Enjoy your weekend. More notes at the end.

Chapter 6, Dearest Rita

Hermione sat at her parents' kitchen table with a bottle of dry red opened and supposed to be breathing next to her. The lack of time since she had opened it nor the lack of a glass to pour it in did nothing to stop Hermione from taking a firm hold on the bottle and drinking deeply.

Picking up her quill and poising it over the parchment before her, Hermione took a deep breath, laying the nib against the parchment forcing the ink from her quill, leaving behind another blotch resulting in Hermione dropping the entire quill to take yet another drink from the wine next to her. The now almost empty bottle next to her was a testament to the nerves coursing through her.

Hermione knew that none of her friends would question the decision that had been weighing on her since her lunch with Rachel two days ago, but now Hermione was sitting and looking into an unknown issue and how to toe that line.

It would be easy enough to approach Rachel, seeing as she'd seen her multiple times at work while Rachel would come to prep different officers for questioning on cases that she was the lead prosecutor for. All Hermione had to do was get up and walk over to the woman and ask for a private word with her. Nothing too terribly hard, right?

The problem, every single time Hermione had decided that it she would, Draco was accompanying the woman to do his own case prep. What was Hermione supposed to say when she approached the pair, who seemed too always be together?

Hi Rachel, can I talk to you, alone? Remember that lunch we had together? Yeah, well see my daughter also happens to be Draco's and well he doesn't know that Aurora is his. I realize that you must have some loyalty to him, but, if you could just keep it to yourself and when this article come out in the paper about what I've been up to the last five years and just skips over the fact I gave birth at some point. Yeah, just, keep it to yourself.

Perfect, no need for edits in that speech.

Was Hermione putting way too much thought into a simple conversation? Yes, absolutely.

Had she been terrified that Rachel would make a comment to Draco about Hermione not only having a daughter, but one that just happened to look like him ever since their lunch? Every day.

Was Hermione also known for putting her foot in her mouth because she assumed that everyone thought the same way she did? More times than she cared to count.

Thus, leaving Hermione sitting alone, drinking a bottle of cheap wine that she'd picked up at the corner store on a Thursday night when she had to work the following day. An unknown amount of parchment wasted from the ink splotches that Hermione had left while she tried to come up with how to write to the reporter that she had in her pocket to hopefully quell the masses with the questions as to exactly where and what Hermione Granger has been doing for the last five years.

The biggest lingering fear seemed to surround a kind and genuine person and what she might or might not tell her coworker and mentor about her "hero" once Hermione gave an all exclusive interview to get the rest of Wizarding Britain off her back. If this article comes out and conveniently leaves out that Hermione had a child fortyish weeks after Harry and Theo's wedding, you know, after her shag with Draco and Pansy, would she make a comment to Draco about meeting Hermione's daughter and question to him why Hermione would leave any information about her out of the article? Having a child was sort of a big deal and something that would be noteworthy, and at the very least, mentioned briefly in a where are they now interview. Surly this would raise some questions, right?

Taking another pull from the bottle (that now felt alarmingly light) Hermione let her head fall to the table she was at. Letting the cool feel of the wood under her cheek sooth her frantic mind. Hermione could hear the faint sound of soft footfalls against the stairs directly behind her, much too pissed to lift her head, Hermione waited until she felt her father's hand between her shoulder blades before she acknowledged his presence with a sigh.

"Something must be eating you up if you're sitting at the table drinking the five quid wine." Lifting the bottle, Hermione heard her father letting out a soft sound, "correction, finishing off the five quid wine." The warmth radiated from her father's hand letting a peace settle over what had previously been Hermione's chaotic thoughts.

"I think I mess up, dad." Normally Hermione refused to cry, and would pull herself together and move on. Not so much when cheap wine or her father's company was involved, either of these could always pull the tears from her eyes. Combing the two of them, the damn burst open with Hermione's tears freely flowing from where she had been trying to contain them.

Small circles were being rubbed on Hermione's back leaving Hermione to relax into her father's warm and comforting hand in his attempt to soothe her. The silence stretched out between them for maybe a few minutes, or maybe a half hour. No matter, however long it was, her father just let Hermione feel the despair and the guilt that she had been wallowing in since the day she walked away from Lucius in that alley and hidden away from Draco with Aurora telling herself that she was doing the right thing.

As her breathing began to even out and she was able to sit up, Hermione turned so that she could look at her dad. The man rarely gave much away with his looks, he had an ability to sit in a silence that wasn't uncomfortable and allowed for someone to collect their thoughts before they spilled their secrets to him. If Roger Granger hadn't become a dentist, he could have easily been an interrogator for the police.

"I know who Aurora's father is" Hermione's low voice and whispered confession would have been impossible to hear if her dad hadn't been sitting closer. The only change with her dad's expression was his eyebrows raised, letting her know that he had indeed heard her, but every other thought that he was having was closed off from Hermione, making her squirm in her seat.

The tears she thought were done began to leak from her eyes again as Hermione dropped her head back into her hands as the words poured from her in a desperate plea. "I know, I should have told him, and I can't imagine how you feel about me doing this after everything I did to you and mum, but I was scared dad. I'm still scared. His family, well they're powerful in the wizarding world, and I was scared what they would do to me and Aurora if they ever found out." Hermione couldn't stop the words from coming now that she'd started. The argument behind keeping Draco and Aurora apart was weak at best, and her actions ultimately were inexcusable.

Still saying nothing, and with the mask firmly in place, Roger nodded for Hermione to continue and finish. "Well, you know, we weren't on the best of terms when I found out about Aurora. I was damn near half way through my pregnancy when I finally figured out what was making me so sick and tired. I was already contracted to live and work in the States for five years, there was no backing out of it when at that point. What type of relationship could he have had with Aurora had he even known about her with that sort of distance between the two of them?

"Oh, and he got engaged the week after Harry and Theo's wedding, you know after we, well." Hermione gave a small cough; she was not going to talk about her very casual shag that resulted in the creation of his granddaughter with her father. "Anyway, he was engaged, and in a betrothal contract no less, so it's not like he could just break it off with the woman. I swear he wasn't dating her when we were together, his father had three different women in mind for him, that's how we, uh, well, that's not the point. The point is, he had been set to be married to someone else three full months before I even knew I was pregnant."

Hermione looked up at with tears trapped in her lashes, pleading that her father understand the mindset she had been in almost five years prior, and that he not hate her. "I tried to tell him, daddy. I showed up with a whole speech prepared a few weeks after I found out, I even saw him in person and I didn't tell him." The tears that Hermione had sworn had run their course were back in full force, but Hermione was determined that she wouldn't let any more of them fall as she watched her father gather his thoughts, still waiting before he said anything.

Another labored breath came, before Hermione felt the calloused hand of her father cover over her joined hands on the table. Hermione hadn't even noticed when she'd clenched them together and started picking at her nails, a horrible nervous habit that she truly needed to stop.

The steady eye contact with her dad showed her that he was still trying to process everything that she had just laid out for him, when he finally spoke. "Do I know him?"

Shaking her head, Hermione looked down at their still joined hands. "You know of him, but you haven't actually met him. Um, Draco Malfoy. We were in the same year at Hogwarts."

At her words, the grip her father had on her hands tightened, Hermione knew that he would recognize Draco's name. Not only had she come home every break from Hogwarts complaining about the boy as a bully, but she had also told her parents about the war and his family's involvement. Her father was also well aware of what had happened to her at Malfoy manor at the hands of his deranged aunt.

"I know it sounds bad, but he'd changed in the years after the war. He was best friends with Theo and I was reintroduced to him when Harry and Theo started dating about four years after the Battle of Hogwarts. We, well, we spent a lot of time together as a group and it was very apparent that he wasn't the same person he had been before the war. It changed him, and for the better. He's a good person now, daddy. He's a good man."

His hand laying on hers didn't relax, but he did let out a sigh. "You need to tell him, Hermione. I think you know that, but I can't deny I don't understand your original reserves with not telling him, even if they were misguided. With that said, it's not fair to either him or Aurora to continue down this path. You can't keep Aurora hidden from the public forever, he'll find out eventually. As for Aurora, she is smart and she's going to go looking for him. It'll be better for all three of you if you were the one to tell them both."

"I know, I just, well I don't know how to tell them now. It's been so long and dad, he's married now, hell they even just celebrated their fourth anniversary. We're working on a case together, so I'm just going to keep seeing more of him until it's resolved. And, Merlin, I have to do something about these bloody reporters that keep harassing me before they find out about Aurora and he finds out from the damn paper instead of from me." With just a bit of hesitation, Hermione finally looked up to her father's eyes.

"You don't have to tell the press about your private life. Harry might have come by yesterday and told us about Dolohov." He held up his hand when Hermione's eyes began to squint in annoyance of her best friend involving her parents in a non-threat. "For everyone's safety, it might be better if you give enough to settle the reporters, but nothing that will put you or Aurora in danger. Don't you still have that one reporter that's a beetle who could do a piece for you?"

Hermione was finally able to let out a small chuckle at her dad's very accurate description of Rita Skeeter. "That's who I was trying to write when you came down. I just, well Tuesday when mum and Aurora ran into me at lunch, I was with one of the women that directly works with Draco. I'm scared of her saying something to him if I leave out having Aurora."

"I think it would be fair to say, in any piece written about you, that due to a development you can't disclose much of your personal life, but you can confirm that you were out of the country for work the last few years honing your skills. Give her the already public information that's been published from your research and work. Focus on the professional, not the personal."

"Yeah, but the public is going to want to know and there's going to be pushback if I do that."

"Don't give them the option. You're bright, I'm positive you can come up with the right words. Now put up that bottle of wine, or just dump the rot out, and get to bed, you do still have to work in the morning." Rolling her eyes, Hermione leaned into the kiss that her father placed on the crown of her head after he'd stood up from his chair and walking around the table to stand in front of her.

Leaving Hermione with a new perspective, she quickly grabbed her quill and fresh parchment jotting out a quick note to Rita. Hermione rolled up the missive and went to her room where her black-banded owl, Knight (named by Aurora), was flying into her room with what he'd found on his hunt.

Ignoring the dead rodent that was now sitting on the windowsill, Hermione pet the soft black feathers on the top of her owl's head. Tying the missive to his leg, Knight puffed out his chest waiting her instructions. "I need you to take this for me, could you wait for a reply? She's a bit of a bug, so don't mind nipping her a bit for me." With a soft hoot, Knight was out the window and off to the most irritating reporter Hermione knew.

ooo

Hermione was situated at her desk scratching away at the stack of reports that had floated into her office over-night, struggling to get the through them (thank you cheap wine hangover) before her lunch appointment was due to arrive.

Just as it had been the days following since Tuesday, every morning when Hermione had entered the Ministry atrium she had been swarmed by the press and paparazzi. Though she doubted that they would completely stop harassing her, she knew that this was the first step into being able to come to and from work without having to part the red sea every damn time.

The unexpected knock at her door had Hermione waving her hand to open it without looking up from the report that she was still in the middle of reviewing. She knew the Kenneth would just come walking in when Rita got there, anyone else who worked on the floor would just come to her door and not work through her assistant.

"Take a seat, I'll be with you shortly." The smell of expensive cologne, mint, and green apple wafted over her, causing her head to snap up to come face to face with the man who she couldn't ever seem to get out of her head. "Draco? What are you doing here?"

"Granger, well you see, we're working on a case together and I haven't heard from you since I had the ledger delivered to you earlier this week, and was needing an update before the weekend." Sitting back in his chair, Draco crossed his legs so that his ankle was resting on his opposite knee looking much more relaxed than he had on Monday when they'd first come face to face.

"Oh, yes, the runes aren't actually customer or trade information. It's part of the concealment, as well as is the Latin. It's a rather complex piece of magic, but now that I've figured out what I'm looking at, it won't take me very long to crack that part. The Ancient Greek, however, I'm not familiar with and I haven't been able to figure yet, but I'm working on it. The Ministry library is lacking in Ancient Greek translations, so I was going to spend the weekend at Grimmauld Place looking around the Nott and Black libraries."

Nodding his head, Malfoy knew the expansive collection that each library would hold. Hermione was really hopeful that either one of those would have what she was looking for, because after looking through the Ministry directory she had been very disappointed at the lack of resources that it held. Honestly, you would think that the government would prioritize holding information on every subject, alas, it was not the case for the Ministry of Magic.

"If those come up lacking what you seek as well, you're welcome to the Malfoy library to continue your search. I'll take some time this weekend to look for what we have on Ancient Greece, I vaguely remember a few tomes I read the summer before fourth year so I know there were some at one point." A quick nod and setting his both his feet on the ground, Draco silently signaled that this was going to be the end of this conversation.

Thinking back to the conversation with her father the night before, Hermione cleared her throat. There was never going to be a good time to tell him about Aurora and she just needed to get it over with. "Draco, I needed to talk to you."

Draco paused midway through him standing from his seat, looking up to meet her eyes through his thick lashes. This was not the time to think it, but damnit, the man's eyes were perfect and still made a heat pool in her lower abdomen.

"It's well, you see here's the thing." Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself, she just needed to tell him. It was the right thing to do. He was going to be pissed, there was no question, but maybe he would be able to rein Lucius in enough to protect Aurora.

Damn you Draco Malfoy, his fringe had slightly fallen into his face and he was clearly trying to hide his amused smirk from her struggling to find the right words. He was about to not be at all amused with her once she could get this damn sentence out of her mouth.

Hermione opened her mouth to give the blow, but the words died on her lips as Kenneth stuck his head in. "Ms. Granger, your lunch appointment is here." Looking between Hermione and Draco, Kenneth waited for her instruction.

"Oh, could you ask her to –" Hermione started, but was cut off by Draco raising his hand to stop her.

"No need, we can catchup later, Granger. I have someone meeting me for lunch anyway." Running his hand down his face and the grimace that showed gave Hermione a hint that that someone was probably his wife.

Yes, Hermione, you might have given birth to his child, but he's still married and totally off limits. Stop drooling over the poor man.

"Yeah, okay, later." Hermione nodded at Draco as he gave a small smile towards her. Nodding his head at Kenneth, he swept out her office and disappeared from view.

"I used to work in his department, really intense bloke." Kenneth's offhand comment on Draco made Hermione chuckle a bit to herself as she silently agreed with the assessment. "Okay, I'll go let Rita know that you're ready for her, yeah?" With a nod of her head, that was all Kenneth needed before he swept out of her office to go get the dirty little beetle herself.

Hermione waved her wand to make sure that any classified information wouldn't be visible for the reporter to try and peak at. Another wave of her wand took all wrinkles that she'd gathered from sitting in her chair for too long, because Hermione knew that Rita wouldn't come without a photographer. Opening her compact, Hermione checked her makeup and added just a touch of lipstick before she deemed herself ready for Rita Skeeter.

It was the perfect timing because just as she was putting the mirror in her tote from checking her makeup, the offensive blonde woman came storming into her office closely followed by a portly wizard carrying a large camera. Rita hadn't even hadn't even taken a seat before the first flash from the camera blinded Hermione.

"Ms. Granger, I've been waiting for your owl since I heard you were back in town. I just was not expecting to be attacked while I was in bed. Beastly little thing you have, fitting knowing his owner." Rita said looking over her glasses glaring at Hermione making her smirk.

"Knight is a good judge of character. Tea?" Hermione asked motioning towards the new tea cart that her mother had gifted her the night before.

"Please, now your missive said I'm getting an exclusive with some conditions. Ms. Granger, I'd ask you to be reasonable, but we both know that you are anything but." Hermione narrowed her eyes at the woman as she waved her hand and three tea cups were filled with earl grey and floated to each person in the room.

"I think we will stick to the facts of what I've been up to. Spin anything or mince my words and we will be having a very different conversation, Rita. Possibly even with another jar. Sugar?" Hermione waved her hand again to bring over the sugar bowl and a little pitcher of milk.

Narrowing her eyes even more in Hermione's direction, Rita fixed her tea and took a sip before clearing her throat. "Fine, what do you even want in the article? The public has been going mad that after a five-year disappearance you're back at the Ministry and they want to know why and why there's been so much secrecy with you."

"I've been away for work traveling all over the Americas for the last five years. There are some, unsettling, circumstances that are making my personal life complicated and I can't have that getting out. You get your exclusive and keep it to just what I've been doing professionally. That's all I'm offering, otherwise, you get nothing. I'll even let you take some actual good pictures of me instead of whatever he captured when you first walked in."

Another squint from Rita and she pulled out her quick quotes quill and parchment. "It's not as if I can negotiate with you anyway, Ms. Granger, still an insufferable swot. Alright, let's get this over with and I'll make sure that you even make the evening addition."

Later that night, Hermione received her own Daily Prophet in her office while she was still finishing up a few things for the night. True to her word Rita had only published about Hermione's professional life. She had alluded to her private life being a bore since she was still single and there were currently no wizards pining after the Gryffindor princess (of course Rita had to throw the hated nickname in there).

Rita had made it sound like all the traveling and research that Hermione had done over the past five years was something more of a hobby instead of doing actual work that made leaps and bounds in discovery and understanding of rune. The nasty beetle was always desperate to paint Hermione in the most unflattering light possible, even with their understanding of each other. Alright, Hermione wasn't above accepting that she had Rita's number and used it to her advantage, she can understand the vindictiveness of the reporter. Hermione didn't even mind when she saw the picture Rita had decided to use was one that was mostly unflattering of her standing next to her desk showing the slight mom pudge that had never fully went away after she'd had Aurora.

The article could have been much worse, but it met what Hermione had asked from Rita. It kept her personal life out of the paper, and protected Aurora from being put on the front page where Draco or any of the Malfoys might spot her.

Walking out of the Ministry after the paper had been delivered was peaceful for the first time since Tuesday. Apparently, Rita's exclusive had done exactly what Hermione had needed it to do. It had pacified the public's curiosity for what her life had become, and made her sound like a very boring thirty-year-old single career woman. Stepping into the floo, Hermione couldn't help but smile to herself at the success.

Now, she just needed to continue to keep the press off her back and out of her personal life, at least until she could reschedule her talk with Draco. Now, to figure out when she would be able to do that.

A/N: Hermione FINALLY making some growth and acknowledging her mistakes! And she knows that she needs to tell Draco, got close, but alas not yet not yet. How long do you think it's going to take for Hermione to tell Draco? We'll just have to wait and see…