A/N: A week late on my update, I profusely apologize. Life kind of got messy there and is still, woof. Starting in the new year things should be getting back to normal though! Because yeah, this week is Christmas and guess who hasn't wrapped a damn thing. This mom. That's me.

Next week is the anniversary of the worst day of my life, and thus usually incapacitates me and puts me in a dark place. I can't promise what will come from me, so I make no promises on my next update before January 3rd. Anything that comes before then is a bonus. More notes at the end.

Chapter 16, Copycat

Hermione was frozen standing in front of her desk gaping down at the deceased owl that had un-ceremoniously been discarded across the top of her desk. By the unnatural way the brown barn owl's wings, legs, and feet were splayed, it appeared to have been dead for some time before it had found its way onto Hermione's desk. Quickly casting her silver otter, Hermione sent an urgent message to Harry that she needed him to come to her office straight away. Knowing that she wasn't sure who he would be around when her message reached him, it was best that she not include any details of what she was needing him for in her summons.

Upon further examination of the letter attached to the owl's leg, Hermione could tell that there was something off with the parchment that it was written on. The leg of the owl had a blackened mark where the missive was in contact with the poor creature, indicating that the parchment it was written on was laced with a poison or curse of some sort. The other thing that Hermione noted was that the outside of the letter was blank. Dolohov always addressed her letters with some sort of endearment in Russian. The conclusion was easy enough to come to. This was the work of a copycat, not the feared Death Eater who was still on the run somewhere in Russia.

Not wanting to waste any time, Hermione pulled her wand from its holster on her arm and began casting some basic spells to ensure that her visual annalist had been correct. There was no detection of Dolohov's magic, and again, he always made sure his magical signature was attached to his letters. Dolohov, being the pig that he is, never wanted Hermione to doubt who was sending those owls to her. This was a close enough copy to what she had received on so many occasions, indicating that it had been planted by someone who knew the basics of the case, but not the full intricate details. Seeing as any case involving her was classified and kept from public knowledge, it wasn't a hard leap to come to terms that whoever this echo, whoever they might be, would have to either be someone in a powerful position or have someone in such a position helping them.

With her initial scan complete on the owl, Hermione turned her attention towards the note. Seeing as it would most likely cause her harm to touch it, Hermione flicked her wand to attempt to retrieve it from the bird without any luck. While trying to devise another approach, Harry came racing into her office demanding to know what the emergency was. However, the moment he saw the bird splayed across numerus reports all his actions and words froze.

Before Hermione could make a move towards explaining what she had already uncovered, Harry whispered, "he's back? He can't be, back."

"No, someone is imitating him." Hermione replied shaking her head, causing Harry's features to shift from agitated to confusion and then alarmed in rapid secession. "The letter attached has been poisoned or cursed, I'm not sure what yet as I haven't been able to get it off. Also, you can see, the front of the envelope is blank, that's not his style to not ensure that I knew he was being a dog before I even read his missives.

"Dolohov always cursed the birds to die upon arrival, this poor creature has been dead at least a day. See how there is no blood and the angle the limbs are at; this owl was tossed onto my desk. It didn't land this way." Hermione moved back to circling her desk, not knowing what type of poison or curse the missive was laced with, she wasn't about to take a chance touching it. That could easily have been whoever's plan, coupling that with not being able to easily remove it with magic, it made sense. With the damage to the owl's leg being contained only to where the letter was attached, it was a semi easy conclusion to come to that the bird hadn't been killed prior to the letter being attached.

Bending to look closer at the parchment, Hermione wondered if there was even a message left for her to read. Wouldn't it be that someone would be thick enough to think she'd fall for reading whatever landed on her desk to pique her curiosity. Unlikely, well not entirely. Another look at the parchment and Hermione was itching to get her eyes on whatever might be written where she couldn't see.

"Okay, I'm going to get together a team to come and inspect your office for anything else that might have been left behind. Regardless who left this, they aren't friendly. Come on, I'm going to need a statement from you over all this. Fucking hell, I get the feeling this is going to be a nightmare to deal with." Harry dropped his hand onto her shoulder, turning her away from the desk and the mystery that laid upon it. Once they'd crossed the threshold of her office and were facing Kenneth's eerily empty desk, Hermione was reminded of her missing assistant. Fuck, of course this wasn't just about her.

"Harry, send someone to Kenneth's house to check on him. He hasn't been into work yet today, and I was under a jinx repelling me from going to my office all morning. I don't – Someone wanted to be able to plant that owl without my being there when it was delivered. They didn't want anyone seeing who was coming and going from my office. Obviously, they wanted to keep me alive, but I can't guarantee that was also extended to Kenneth." The look of concern that crossed Harry's face at the notion of her being jinxed without her knowledge brought Hermione away from the thoughts whirling in her head.

The question was though, when would someone have been able to jinx her? She'd already been running late and hadn't planned on stopping by her office before her morning meeting with Hestia from the moment she stepped into her floo at home. That only widened the timeframe of when she could have been hit by a jinx from an unknown witch or wizard. Who had she seen after the morning meeting had concluded? Only Jasmine and Harry, neither of them would have jinxed her. The only time Jasmine touched her wand was to send a memo to Kenneth. Hermione's post war paranoia had her hone in the skill of being able to usually tell when someone was attempting to use magic against her.

She had run into Lucius, but he had never drawn his wand? Or had he? It was possible that someone have set the jinx on her when she was on the floor without her knowledge. She had been distracted and not fully paying attention to all the people walking around her. That was possible, but then also, inside the lift that she'd rode on had been filled. There's a possibility it could have happened then, but there would be no way to pin point who could have jinxed her. Hermione had been so flustered with running late for her meeting with Hestia and thinking that it was concerning Aurora, that she couldn't remember a single person who had been in the lift with her that morning.

Harry and Hermione had just entered his office and settled at his desk, when Hestia came storming in already informed about what had been found in Hermione's office. After recounting to Hestia what she'd walked into and what she'd been able to discover in the short time between sending her patronus and when Harry had gotten to her office. Hestia nodded and agreed with Hermione's assessment that it wasn't truly Dolohov that had put the owl in Hermione's office.

"Harry, the Aurors sent to check on Kenneth just sent word, he was fine. He had been put under the Imperius Curse, but he has no idea who did it. Just that he was instructed to turn around and return home and not leave. Hermione, I want you working from home the rest of today and tomorrow. Come up with a list of who would want to intimidate you, I have a feeling that it might be connected to the Borgin case, but it could be completely unrelated. Thursday the only reason I want you coming into the office is for your testimony in the Borgin case. Friday come in and you'll be working with Seamus, Sasha, and Dean to go over the plans for Saturday. I'm sorry, but we can't push back the raid another day, and you're the best we have with the runes and we need you going in."

There was never any room left for debate when Hestia gave an order. It was clear why she had been made the department head after the war had ended. She commanded respect and ran the entirety of the DMLE with a firm hand, but also realized that everyone working under her were equally important. Hermione and Harry agreed with Hestia's plan of action without question.

"We need to do a sweep of the entire ministry, not just Hermione's office, to see if there are any other cursed objects floating around. I already contacted the curse breakers and they're working on that as we speak. We've sent the owl down to the lab to determine a cause of death and how long it has been deceased. Hermione, is there anything else important to the case I need to know about." At this final thought, Hermione wondered if Aurora needed to be brought up again to Hestia. Draco had signed her birth certificate, so anyone who went looking would now be able to see that he was her father. Even though any of Aurora's medical records would be classified, if someone were determined, they would be able to find that she was a veela. Either of those facts alone would put a target on Aurora, much less the two combined. Any target on Aurora would also extend to Hermione as her mother.

"Um. Well, my daughter. She's uh, well, she's a veela." Hermione wrung her hands together not allowing herself to look up at her department head.

"That'd make you someone to go after. How many people know this? I'd assume it's not public knowledge, seeing as you having a daughter isn't even common knowledge. Okay, this expands who might want to intimidate you. Is there anything else that could make someone want to threaten you?" Hestia commented, but Hermione still couldn't bring herself to meet her eye as she twisted her hands in her lap.

"Well, yes. There is, well, Draco Malfoy is my daughter's father; he signed her birth certificate yesterday to acknowledge paternity. He told me that he's going to start taking the step to legitimize her as his heir." As Hermione finished her statement, she heard Hestia quietly curse to herself. Finally raising her eyes, the only thing she saw was the department head looking slightly paled and deep in thought with her hand holding her chin.

"Harry, send word down to legal that we need Mr. Malfoy up here. That bloody birth certificate would be public record and anyone digging dirt to hurt the Malfoy family would easily find that. Fuck, Hermione. Please tell me that there isn't anything else." Hestia asked looking Hermione in the eye, as she shook her head no let out a sigh and dropped her head rubbing her brow with her fingers.

"Oh, right. The thing is though," Harry said, speaking for the first time since Hestia had entered the office. "Malfoy isn't in the country right now, Hestia. He had something come up with his wife and is in France for the next few days. Don't you read the Prophet? They had a whole bit on him and his wife this morning." Harry replied pushing his glasses up his nose as he watched his department head look up and glare at Harry.

"Potter, the only thing the Daily Prophet is good for is lining my hamster's cage. Fuck, alright, Hermione, you head home. Harry, you get ahold of Mr. Malfoy and let him know the situation and that Hermione is being targeted, possibly to in extension to go after him. Going to go see if anyone's been able to get that bloody letter off that owl yet. Dismissed." Without awaiting a reply, Hestia quickly swept out of the office and was gone before either was able to say another word to her.

As soon as the door had shut behind their department head, Harry spoke up. "Alright, I guess I'll send off a quick note to Malfoy and then get your statement." Without waiting for Harry to start asking her questions, Hermione grabbed a spare bit of parchment and quill and jotted down her statement. She didn't have time to wait on Harry asking all the standard questions and going through the step. Hermione needed to get out of the ministry and quickly. If someone was going after the Malfoys through her, that meant that their next stop would be her home that had yet to be warded.

"Here, sorry I don't have time to give you anything else. I've got to get home." Hermione jumped from her chair without looking back at Harry and ran from his office. She needed to get home to Aurora. What had she been thinking leaving her house unprotected? Oh gods, and if someone had been going after the Malfoys through her, Hermione shuttered to think what they would do to her precious girl.

Hermione dashed from the lift as it opened to the atrium and ran for the floor. Her parents wouldn't have been able to contact her. They wouldn't have been able to defend themselves against someone with magic. They would have all been sitting ducks. And after what happened yesterday, she should have asked Theo to go over and sit with her family and not left them alone. What a fool she'd been.

No matter, even if he was still mad at her, Theo would have gone and been with Aurora. He would have understood that she was nervous and he would have taken care of them. If something happened to Aurora, Hermione would never be able to forgive herself.

In her nerves, Hermione stumbled out of her floo and into her house ready to start calling out, when she found her mother and Aurora sitting with finger paint at her dining room table. They were safe. They were all safe.

"Hermione? What are you doing home so early?"

"MUMMY! I made you a picture, see!" The pair both spoke at the same time. Tears that she hadn't even known she had been holding back spilled out of her eyes as she reached both her mother and Aurora pulling them into a hug. The entire day had gone to shit so quickly, and Hermione had feared the worst would be waiting for her when she returned home. That had seemed to be the trend since she'd moved back to England, but this time, everything was okay. Her family was okay and her home was still safe.

The relief that washed over her was short lived though, as she concluded that the wards needed put in place as soon as possible. "Mum, is the contractor done? I need to call Bill to come over to help me set the wards, but I was waiting on the construction to be finished before I did that, but I can't put it off any longer." Hermione asked pulling back from her mother and daughter with some blue finger paint smeared into her cream suit jacket.

"Oh, yes, they just finished up before lunch. Is everything alright dear? You seem a bit, off." Helen's eyes quickly glanced towards Aurora to see if she had picked up on her mother's frantic state. It seemed Aurora was still blissfully unaware of the panic her mother was continuing to fighting off, as she had moved back to painting the blue construction paper with blue paint.

"Okay, I'm going to get ahold of Bill and see if he can come over. Could you keep Aurora for a bit longer while I work with him on setting the wards around the property? I'll see if Fleur can come with him, since I'm not really sure if we need take any extra precautions with Aurora being a veela."

"And bring Louie over to see me and play at my house." Hermione turned back to look at her daughter who had stopped her painting, clearly recognizing the names Bill and Fleur as Louie's parents' names. Hermione couldn't help the chuckle that came out at her daughter's blunt request.

"Of course, they'll bring Louie over to play with you, darling. I'm sure he'll want to see you too." Helen quickly interjected before Hermione could respond to her child.

Aurora's face split into a beaming grin at the idea of getting to see Louie and hopped down from her seat at the table without another word. Running towards the stairs where she disappeared from sight. Helen again looked over at her daughter and studied her. Hermione had always been tight lipped with anything really negative that happened with her life in the wizarding world as a means to try and keep her parents from worrying, but since they had rekindled their relationship, she'd sworn that she would put a stop to the lying. Because lying by omission was still a lie, not that she needed that reminder at the moment.

"There was an incident at work." Hermione started once she was positive Aurora wouldn't be able to overhear any conversation. "Remember my telling you about the creepy messages that were delivered to me via a cursed owl?" Hermione met her mother's eye watching as the information sunk in.

The gears were clearly turning behind Helen Granger's eyes as she slowly nodded. Standing up, Helen began to pace around the table that Hermione had found her at. "Hermione, what is going on? Is that man after you again? Are we safe here? Do we need to leave the country again? Your father and I have the time share outside of Sydney still, we could take a vacation there." Helen snapped her head up looking towards Hermione with fear clear as day shining in her eyes.

"It wasn't him," Hermione quickly informed her mother, "but someone found out about it and has attempted to duplicate his, well, methods. It involves someone who would have had access to sensitive information. My assistant and I were both targeted to keep us away from my office today so that whoever it was could deliver their threat without detection. I'll be home until Thursday when I have trial I have to attend. Harry is looking into it, but that's why we have to set the wards today." Hermione finished, letting the information settle in with her mother.

"So, we aren't in any danger?" Helen asked and Hermione shook her head as her mother nodded in understanding. "Okay, I'll let your father know." Helen quickly left through Hermione's porch and disappeared into her own house.

Once she was alone, Hermione quickly set about contacting Fleur to see if she would be able to get Bill over as soon as possible. Fleur let her know that she was more than happy to get ahold of him for Hermione, since it could be a bit of a task to hunt him down at Gringotts. Fleur was more than happy to brining Louie along so Aurora could have a playdate with the little boy.

After she'd ended the floo call, Hermione quickly started boiling water to put together a pot of tea in an attempt to help calm her nerves. She needed to speak with Draco, that was evident. Had it really only been about twenty-four hours since she had told him that he was Aurora's father? How could so many separate incidents happen in such a short period of time that could warp her entire reality?

Sitting down at the new island in her kitchen, Hermione sipped from the cup when she heard the floo activate. Setting down her drink, she walked back into her sitting room expecting to find Bill, Fleur, and Louie. Instead standing waiting for her was a face she wasn't expecting to find.

"Theodore?"

Theo stood before her scratching at the back of his neck, meeting her eye head on. Hermione could easily feel him probing against her mind, but with everything that had happened in the last two days, she couldn't bring herself to care in the least. The memories of telling Draco, going to Aurora's nursery school, finding Lucius nosing around Draco's office, and then finding the ruddy owl on her desk. It was all there for Theo to see and feel, Hermione had nothing to hide from the man that had been there for her since she'd told him she was pregnant.

"I'm still upset with you. You should never have lied to me or Harry, but you especially should never have lied to Draco." Well, that answered her non verbal question if he was still upset with her. "Harry told me what happened at work, and I wanted to come check on you and see if you could use my help with setting the wards. Regardless of anything else that has happened, you're still the mother of my goddaughter and I love her and you."

With tears in her eyes, Hermione responded "yeah, okay."

ooo

The rest of the day had flown by in spectacular fashion. Between Hermione, Theo, and Bill, the three of them had been able to set all the protection wards short of a fidelius. The anti muggle charms had to be adjusted a bit to make sure that Hermione's parents wouldn't have any trouble with coming and going from their own home. Theo had a masters in charms, and he was completely brilliant when it came to tinkering wards. He had been able to fiddle with them so that Hermione could adjust the wards to permit certain muggles and not just anyone magical. It was truly an impressive bit of magic, and Hermione was so grateful that Theo had gone through the effort of making life easier on her parents.

After consulting with Fleur on any additional protection that needed to be added for a veela; Fleur, Helen, Louie, and Aurora had all gone off on an adventure around the property. Now that all the protections were in place and a few extra fire-resistant charms had been put on the builds for any accidental fireballs, they went searching for their very own nomads. They weren't very hard to find, as all the trio had to do was follow the laughs and squeals from the children.

"MUMMY, MUMMY! Louie is so funny mummy! He fell in the pond! There was a BIG tire that we were trying to float in and he fell through the center!" A dry Aurora and a damp Louie had come running across the field making the adults stop and laugh at their approach. Both children were beaming, Louie clearly not having any hurt feelings over fall into the water.

"Da, can Aurora come play at our house tomorrow?" Louie asked once they were close enough that yelling was no longer required to communicate. Hermione's eyes wandered over to Aurora who had clasped her hands together with excitement and was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

After her pleading eyes left her mother's, Aurora's gaze wandered over the men she was standing with. "Uncle Theo!" It seemed that Aurora hadn't noticed her godfather during her approach. She took a run at him with her short legs carrying her as fast as they could before launching herself off the ground and securely into his arms.

"My darling girl! Oh, how I've missed you so. Say, princess, did you grow? You feel heavier?" Theo said looking down at the blond in his arms. "Oh, you must have. You're all grown now! I… Can't… Hold… You… Any…" Theo was saying as he was slowly dropping Aurora down his body with her screaming and trying to hold on tighter to her godfather. "LONGER!" Theo yelled the last word and instead of dropping the child, easily threw her up in the air pulling another trill of laughter from her.

"Uncle Theo!" Aurora giggled into his neck as she cuddled up with him. Putting her hands on his cheeks she awarded him with a giant grin. "I like your eyebrows." She told him lightly touching his left eyebrow that had a small scar running through it.

"Um, thanks?" Theo replied raising the eyebrow that Aurora had just touched before letting her down to run off with Louie.

During that time, Helen and Fleur had finally caught up to the group and shared in the laugh at Aurora's strange commentary. Fleur tilted her head allowing Bill to brush his lips against her cheek before wrapping an arm around her waist. Helen, who was partial to Theo, waisted no time in throwing her arms around the younger man and pulling him into a tight hug.

"Theodore, you do realize that I'm retired and that means that you are supposed to be round every Tuesday for tea, correct." Helen scolded him as she pulled back and looking him up and down, inspecting him.

After Hermione's parents had come fully back into her life, they'd been eternally grateful towards both Harry and Theo and how they had stood by her for all her adult years when they couldn't and then when they had allowed their hurt to keep them from being close to their daughter. Helen had always known that Harry was an orphan, but with Hermione keeping so many secrets from her parents during her Hogwarts years, they had never really gotten to know her friends during her school years.

Once Hermione had opened up to her parents to being repairing their relationship, they had asked after Harry, knowing that they had stayed close friends. Hermione had brought Harry around to her parents a few times and then after the roots had been set, Harry started to bring Theo around as well. That's when Helen learned that Theo also had no parents. His mother having died when he was a small child and his father was currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban, Helen Granger saw the two parentless men and decided to take them in as if they were her own. Over the years, both Harry and Theo had managed to make themselves honorary Grangers. The only issue though, Aurora was Helen's favorite, but Theo was a close second. In Helen Granger's eyes, Theodore Potter could do no wrong.

"I'm sorry, Helen." Theo said taking her hand and lightly brushing a kiss across her knuckles, "I know we'd made the plans and arranged for that schedule. I swear to you, that now you are settled into your beautiful new home, I'll never disappoint you again." Theo grinned down at the elderly woman before him.

"See that you don't" was Helen's reply as she reached up to cup his face.

"Honestly, you're supposed to be my mother." Hermione said watching the two of them with a playful eye roll.

"Yes, well, I always wanted a perfect son and now I have one." Helen said grinning at her daughter with a wink, forcing Hermione to throw her hands up with a sigh.

The five adults made their way behind the two children running hand in hand ahead of them heading towards the field of wild flowers to continue whatever game Aurora had decided they must play.

"I got your letter dis morning, Hermione." Fleur said looking past Bill to where Hermione stood on his other side. "I am more than happy to allow Aurora to join Louie in his studies, if that is what you truly wish."

With all of what had happened, Hermione had almost forgotten that she'd had written Fleur the previous night. After what had happened when she had allowed Aurora to attend the muggle nursery school, Hermione had decided that until Aurora had a better handle on her magic, homeschooling with Louie would be a better option. Hermione also felt that Fleur might be able to help Aurora connect to the veela part of herself in ways that Hermione would never be able to. With her visits to seeing Ella not nearly as frequently, Hermione had wanted to secure Aurora learning all there was to know about veela culture. Normally, that would have fallen to the parent that the child had inherited their veela gene from. However, Hermione didn't want to risk over stepping and putting too many expectations onto Draco when he would just be getting to know Aurora.

"Are you sure? I don't want to over step, but Aurora had mentioned how sad she was that Louie wouldn't be with her for her schooling. I know my parents would happily continue watching her every day, but after what happened…" Hermione trailed off knowing that there wasn't much else she could say. In her letter she had also told Fleur what had happened with Aurora at school.

"No need, Louis vill love aving Aurora join him." Fleur said reaching across and laying her hand on Hermione's forearm. "We vill ave two very happy children dis way."

Hermione could only agree, watching the two play it was clear that they were completely smitten with each other. And it was with that thought that Hermione looked up to see Louie handing Aurora a single wild flower that he'd just picked for her. As her own 'thank you' to him, Aurora grabbed the boy by his shoulders and pulled him towards her to land a kiss right on his mouth.

"AURORA JEAN!" Hermione yelled causing the curly haired blond to look up and run away laughing as she went.

Louie, on the other hand, stood in shock right where his friend had just left him. Turning towards the adults with a sheepish look on his face. "Louie, mate, you alright there?" Bill called out to his young son.

"Da, I love Aurora."

A/N: Ending this on a much brighter note than the last chapter! Next chapter is titled Trial and includes the start of the Borgin trial AND the first time Draco and Hermione are seeing each other since he found out about Aurora! YIKES ON FUCKING BIKES! Go ahead and drop some predictions on what is going to happen between them.

Fun fact, I have a tentative chapter count. Looking at 36 chapter with a prologue and epilogue (so 38 total), that number can grow, it won't be shorter than that.

Aurora complimenting Theo's eyebrows came from my 4yo. Today while we were cuddling, he just looked up at me and told me that he liked my eyebrows. I'll take a compliment where I can get them. Also, her painting blue on blue construction paper comes directly from my son as well.

The giant tire the children play in is a call back from my own childhood. My mom's neighbor, who the Granger's homes are based off passed away earlier this week. I've known this wonderful man my entire life, and countless times would myself, my brothers, and his children take a tractor tire and float around from the small river that connected our properties.

If there's not an update before, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.