A/N: What do you get when I write out a chapter and I'm just too fucking excited how it turned out?

You get it a day early. That's what happens.

Chapter 21, The Malfoy Heiress

It had been late when Draco had left the night before, after playing together for a few hours in their pond they were all exhausted and hungry. At Aurora's insistence, he had stayed for dinner and Hermione hadn't had any objections to it. In fact, she had only decided to throw together a simple spaghetti dinner anyway, so adding another person to the mix wasn't hard at all. It held the added bonus that Aurora and Draco got to spend even more time together, and that was something that Hermione was very happy to accommodate.

Draco hadn't tried to broach anymore topics that Hermione might be hesitant to answer in front of Aurora, and she had appreciated that. Instead, after finishing dinner, they'd pulled out old home videos that Hermione had captured of Aurora over the years to watch with Draco. Aurora had squealed with joy watching herself on the telly rolling, walking, even eating her first birthday cake with Theo in the background openly mocking Hermione's plastic cups she'd bought for the party. Draco had let out a real laugh when he saw Aurora swipe the cupcake that Hermione had sat on her tray onto the floor before looking over the edge to glare at the treat.

It wasn't long before Aurora had fallen asleep sitting between her parents. Draco had followed Hermione up to Aurora's bedroom and assisted in tucking Aurora in for the night, before excusing himself and leaving through the floo. The green flames had hardly cleared when Helen had rushed into the house demanding answers of her daughter.

Roger had the good sense to not mention that Hermione had already spilled in a cheap wine induced haze who had fathered their granddaughter. With a heavy sigh, Hermione had repeated the entire story to her mother over a late-night tea.

"Well, honestly. You've known this whole time and you never told me?" Helen had scolded Hermione.

"Of course, I knew, but you weren't speaking to me at the time. And like I told you, by the time I figured out that I was pregnant the man was bloody engaged, was he not? It was just, I don't know. Easier to tell everyone I didn't know who her father was instead of telling you all and then asking you to not tell him. It felt, safer, I suppose, for no one to know if he couldn't even know." Hermione explained, wrapping her hands around her teacup.

"Oh, Hermione Jean. I thought we had been over this. There's nothing you need to hide from us, not ever again. We are your parents, and we love you." Helen reached across the table, covering Hermione's hand as she looked over at Roger who wasn't acting nearly surprised enough.

"You bloody well knew. Roger Nelson Granger, you best bring yourself back here this instant!" Her mother had chased her father from Hermione's kitchen at that point, leaving Hermione to make her way to her bathroom and settle for deep sleep that night.

Thus, leading her to this Monday late morning, where she was sitting behind her desk scratching away at a piece of parchment. More case files that she knew what to do with had come in over the weekend, not to mention her own separate report that she needed to go over with Hestia by the time her meeting with her rolled around later that day.

When Kenneth knocked on her door to remind her that it was the lunch hour, Hermione had shooed him away with the instructions that she could eat later. Bless his caring heart, because Hermione found a sandwich with a stasis charm had somehow made its way onto her desk and gotten hidden under another file that she was going to have to go over. It wasn't the first time that Hermione was thankful for the thoughtfulness of her assistant, because without him, she'd most certainly skip almost every lunch.

A knock at her door went missed while Hermione's quill and eyes flew over the contract that had been seized in a raid over the weekend that Hermione was needing to decipher. The call of her name wasn't heard as she finished translating the last line. When a hand came down on her desk in front of her to stop her from moving onto her next piece of work, however, Hermione finally jumped from where she was sitting and made eye contact with the man standing in front of her.

"Harry! How long have you been standing there?" She asked looked at her friend in his deep red auror's robes.

"Maybe five minutes. Hermione, we got something with that blasted owl, and I'm going to need you to come to my office." Slowly shaking her head, Hermione set the quill that had broken in her grip off to the side, before standing on shaky legs.

"Harry, you're scaring me." Hermione said slowly coming up behind him reaching her hand out so that she could interlock her fingers with his. There was something in the way he was looking at her that made Hermione pause and know that this was more serious than someone just trying to spook her.

"Not here, Hermione. Wait until we're in my office." Harry said turning to look over his shoulder, receiving a short nod in her response. Still clutching his hand, Harry dragged Hermione down the hall and through the DMLE.

A rush of thoughts and fears began to course through Hermione. Maybe she'd been wrong, what if it was Dolohov who had sent that owl? What if it wasn't, but instead it was another death eater that was working with him, and he'd told them what to do and they'd botched his instructions? Could she really handle having more attention from anymore death eaters? What if these new death eaters weren't just being creeps and had actual intentions to harm Hermione?

While Hermione's mind was continuing to run wild, they'd silently walked across the DMLE and were situating themselves in Harry's office when a knock sounded at the door. Harry waved his hand, as if he weren't surprised that someone else would be joining them. Hermione raised one eyebrow, in a silent question that Harry never had to answer.

Turning in her chair, Hermione's jaw dropped slightly. "What is Draco doing here, Harry? What the bloody hell is going on." She asked as soon as Harry and shut and warded his office with a few waves of his wand. Sitting next to her, Draco pulled off his suit jacket and draped it over the back of his own chair, looking equally confused why he'd be called into Harry's office.

"I thought it might be easier to get this all done at once, since this case directly involves the both of you. I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm so bloody sorry." Hermione's heart began racing as she looked into the emerald eyes of her best friend. Sweat beading on her hands, Hermione waited for Harry to continue, but when he took too long, her nerves couldn't take the anticipation anymore.

Hermione slammed her hands on the desk in front of her and knocked her chair back. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" Hermione screamed at the man sitting across the desk from her. She swiveled her head so that she was looking at the blonde who had yet to say anything himself. She could see in his face though, the way his jaw was clenched and the vein popping out slightly on his neck.

"You're going to tell me, and you're going to tell me right fucking now Harry James Potter." Hermione growled, towering over the still seated men.

A sad and tired look crossed Harry's face as he took another breath. Running his hands into his already messy hair making it stick out even more than usual, he met her gaze and said the words she'd most dreaded to hear.

"Aurora is the target. Whoever the sender is knows that she's your daughter, both of your daughter." Hermione's face blanched at his words as her world felt like it was falling in on itself. Her daughter, her sweet and loving, innocent daughter. How could she be anyone's target, she was just, everything good. How could someone threaten someone who was just so, pure?

"Whatever you need to protect her, you've got it, Potter. If your department is lacking in funds, I'll personally fund it." Draco spoke for the first time and Hermione couldn't help but look at him in wonder.

"Who all have you told?" Hermione asked looking over at him. If this was coming from someone who knew that both her and Draco were Aurora's parents, then that left the list to being very short. "Only Harry, Theo, and my parents have been told by me that you're her father. Hell, I only told my mother last night. I don't think Theo would have cursed an owl and dropped it dead on my desk, so who all have you told?" Hermione could feel the head rising in her cheeks as she looked at the man, wondering who he could have slipped the information to. Her anger and her temper were being directed at the wrong person and she knew it, but her daughter was being threatened and Hermione was on the verge of a full panic attack.

"Only my solicitor, but he's under the strictest confidentiality bindings and couldn't have told anyone. We did have Aurora's birth certificate updated and filed with the British Ministry to list myself as her father and that's now public record, but someone would have to know to go looking for it." Draco answer made tears well up in Hermione's eyes. It was public record, of course. She'd been so stupid; she'd put Draco in a position where he thought that he had to take such an extreme step to stop her from keeping him from his daughter any longer.

This was all her fault.

Hermione looked over at Harry, the list were people who would die before letting harm come to Aurora, a solicitor who was bound to not be able to say anything, and anyone who knew how to look through birth records at the ministry. This wasn't good. There was no lead here on this list, unless Harry was going to arrest himself or his husband for questioning, neither of those were going to happen.

"What about your father?" Harry asked Draco folding his hands on the top of his desk.

"Harry." Hermione warned as a confused look filtered onto Draco's face.

"What about my father? I haven't told him or my mother about Aurora's existence, nor has he indicated to me of any knowledge about her." Draco replied, now looking between the two Gryffindors.

Harry turned so he was looking at Hermione with an open mouth. "You haven't told him?" He hissed at his friend running a hand down his face as he let out a heavy sigh. "Merlin, Hermione, how have you managed to tell him everything except that! Didn't you just spend the whole bloody day with him yesterday?"

"Harry, stay out of it. You aren't about to tell him either. What did that bloody letter say Harry?" Hermione was trying her best to control her emotions; this was not how she wanted to tell Draco about Lucius's threats on that November day so long ago.

"Granger, Potter, someone had better start making some sense in their next few words. I'll repeat myself only once more. What does my father have to do with Aurora?" Hermione's eyes traveled down to the man who only yesterday had sat out on a blanket in her yard eating sandwiches and playing in her pond. How long ago that felt now looking at him glaring up at her now.

"Hermione…" Harry drew her attention back to him before she reached behind her to pull her chair back up to the desk.

Sitting back down in her chair, Hermione folded her hands in her lap. He'd already guessed that there was more to her avoiding telling him about Aurora. Hell, just yesterday she'd confirmed that there was more to it. Now, Harry Bigmouth Potter, had gone and let it slip that it involved his father. If there was ever a time to tell him the whole truth, it was now.

"Your father, that day I came back, it was to tell you." Hermione started, not wanting to lift her eyes, but refusing to be a coward, she did. The molten silver gaze watching her. It hurt to hold eye contact, but she didn't waver. Draco deserved to know the truth, the full truth. Draco nodded his head for her to continue, as Hermione hadn't even realized she'd paused for so long. "I had just portkeyed into the Ministry and was actually looking for you because I was going to tell you about Aurora that day. I knew you were engaged, and I was already stuck in my contract with MACUSA, but I thought you deserved to know."

The confusion written all over Draco's face made Hermione pause for just a moment to catch her breath, but she continued without needing to be prompted again. "I chased you out of the Ministry, but you didn't notice me. Before I could call out to you, Lucius pulled me aside and down an alley. He told me I was to stay away from you. I was not to interfere in your personal life, and if Lucius ever found out, he had the money and the political power to destroy me. I honestly don't know what he knew at the time, I don't think he knew I was pregnant, but I just stayed away. I thought it was for the best."

The fury that crossed Draco's face was not something that Hermione had ever seen. She'd seen him mad, certainly she'd been friends with him for years and watched when he'd gotten mad after having a bad day in front of the Wizengamot. She'd seen him after his new racing broom had been crashed into a tree, rendering it completely useless. Hell, he'd been her childhood bully and they'd gone toe to toe on more occasions than she could count when he'd sneer at her.

All of that paled in comparison. He knew, Draco finally knew that his father was the reason why she'd kept his daughter hidden away from him.

"And you never thought to tell me." The vein in Draco's neck had been strained before, now looked as if it were ready to burst.

"Five years, Granger. Five BLOODY YEARS! That bastard threatened you and instead of telling me, you do what he says!" Draco dropped his head into his hands and began running his fingers in his hair messing it up.

"Draco, I wanted to tell you. Honest." Hermione's whisper was easily heard as the rest of the room was completely silent.

"Did you not trust that I could protect you from him? After everything we'd been through? Did you think that I was still that same scared seventeen-year-old boy who would stand by and do nothing to protect you? Protect our daughter?" Draco kept his head in his hands, not even glancing towards her. Hermione, on the other hand, couldn't keep her eyes off Draco.

"I was scared. I was pregnant and scared; I was also alone. Gods, Draco. I was so fucking alone, and I didn't know how you'd react to the pregnancy to being with. I'm so sorry." Hermione's chest heaved up and down as she finished her emotional confession. There, now he knew. No more secrets between them.

The parents were interrupted by Harry clearing his throat. Breaking away from looking at him, and Draco looking up from his shoes, they both looked at Harry now. Looking between the two of him, Harry flicked his wand and, on the desk, appeared a piece of parchment that had something written on it.

"I understand that you both are dealing with some strong emotions right now, but I need you both to focus. You can discuss what a piece of shit Lucius is later." Harry stated drawing their attention away from their squabble. "Before you is a copy of the letter that was attached to the owl. It was a nasty bit of magic that had cursed that parchment, and we were able to break it long enough to Geminio it. The original is currently locked up in evidence since the curse continued to re-manifest after we break it."

Hermione hadn't even finished listening to Harry before she was bent over the parchment and reading the letter that had been delivered to her desk just the week prior. Had it really only been a week since she'd told Draco about Aurora? It felt like so much more times had passed than that.

The young Malfoy heiress will be the one to pay the price of the mistakes of her patriarch.

Someone knew. Someone knew that Aurora was set to be the Malfoy heiress, and they were planning on taking out their issues with Lucius on Aurora? What did this all mean?

"Harry, this is threatening Aurora for the things Lucius has done. Do you think that he's involved in this?" Hermione asked looking up at him with tears threatening to spill over.

"Oh no, I'm wondering if Lucius could know about Aurora. This is enough to pull him in for questioning, you know, start on that list of 'mistakes' he's made in his lifetime. Shouldn't take too terribly long." Harry's joke falling flat as the two parents looked at a threat made directly at their child sitting before them.

"What else do you have Harry, you had to have figured out more than just how to read this blasted sentence in a fucking week." Hermione asked looking from the parchment back up to her friend.

"Well, we did figure out where the owl came from. It was a rescue post owl being treated at a rehabilitation center outside of Bristol. It was accounted for Monday night after the workers had left for the evening, but Tuesday when they came back it was gone. They'd assumed he'd recovered enough and was still out exploring, but obviously it showing up dead on your desk says otherwise.

"Could your father learn about Aurora from your solicitor." Harry asked turning his body so that he was facing Draco. "Hell, could Astoria find out about her, your mother, anyone in your family? Would they let it slip that you had a child, where someone else might find out?" Harry continued prodding Draco.

"Legally, they could all get that information, easily. Astoria is in France at a rehab facility, but we have been working with our solicitor and she might have found out from questioning him herself. I'm not sure what the conversation has been between the two of them." Draco commented, his stare not moving from Harry.

"And what is it that Astoria has been in contact with your solicitor for?" Harry asked holding a quill making notes for his case. "You can understand why she's going to be on my radar if she might know about Aurora being your daughter."

Not moving her eyes from the blonde man, Hermione could see that his jaw clenched just a bit more, before letting out a breath. "We've been in the process of divorcing for a few months now. Part of our marriage contract was that she would have to produce an heir by our fifth wedding anniversary, between her blood curse and the drug use, she's been left barren. We discovered it after her arrest prior to this latest one. May, I believe it was, we didn't tell anyone about it because, well, we didn't want to risk my father finding out.

"Secretly we've been working on a divorce agreement just between the two of us, reason why we're using one solicitor and not two. You know, draw less attention to ourselves." Draco said, finally looking over at Hermione. "The divorce should be finalized within the coming weeks, but obviously if Astoria has found out about Aurora it could become a bit more complicated. I haven't received any correspondence from her since my return last week, and that's unlike her."

Draco held the eye contact with Hermione longer than necessary, but Hermione couldn't stop her jaw from hanging open. "So, you really are getting a divorce." She finally uttered to him, still in complete disbelief that this was happening.

"How did you know? I've only told… Rachel" Lifting his hand and rubbing it over his face. "Of course, meddlesome as she is, I'm not entirely surprised. Yes, Astoria and I are getting divorced. It was happening before you came back into my life and before I knew about Aurora.

"I have all intentions of making Aurora my legitimate heiress after my divorce is finalized. Honestly, Astoria has turned into a bit of a wild card, and I don't know what she would do if she knew about Aurora before the divorce is finalized. This seems a little extreme for her, but honestly, I'm not sure."

Hermione and Harry shared a look before looking back at Draco who had gone from looking at them to inspecting his nail beds. "Care to elaborate a bit more, Malfoy? That's a lot that could be pointing this investigation towards Astoria." Harry asked while his quill was still poised over his parchment.

Letting out a breath, Draco looking up from his hands and looked between the two friends. "When Astoria and I were married, she wasn't the way she is now. About a month after our vows, she was diagnosed with the blood disease, it's a family curse that has no cure. To cope with the news that her life span would be shortened to living just into her thirties, Astoria and Daphne both started using pixie dust and their personalities changed. If you can believe it, Astoria used to be a meek and kind little thing. The perfect pureblood daughter never stepped a toe out of line.

"I tried to help her; I really did. Just, we never loved each other, and we've both learned that life is too short. So, after she was hospitalized with her overdose in May, we both agreed to a divorce. Having the same solicitor for it is just because we aren't fighting over anything, and like I said earlier we don't want to draw the attention of my father to what we're doing. I want her to be comfortable and happy. Obviously, that's not with me. Just, the pixie dust keeps changing her and it keeps making her a bit more erratic and I don't know what she might be capable of anymore." Draco finished meeting both Harry and Hermione's eyes head on.

"Okay, so Astoria Malfoy will need to be interviewed. This means that she's going to find out about Aurora, if she's not already aware of her, you do understand that." Harry said looking between the two parents after making another note on his parchment. "This might cause some issues with your divorce, and I apologize for that."

Hermione's fist clenched in her lap. She didn't want Astoria to know anything about Aurora while she might still be able to cause some sort of legal trouble, but this threat. This threat meant that there was something bigger and Hermione was willing to risk anything to keep her daughter safe.

"Whatever it takes to make Aurora safe, I'm fine with it." Draco answered before Hermione could speak up with her opinion.

"This could cost you a lot more in the long run." Harry reminded Draco looking at him across the desk.

"And that's a risk I'm willing to take." Draco stated, his eye contact not breaking for even a moment.

"What about Lucius? Or Narcissa? This means that if they don't know about Aurora yet, that we need to tell them sooner rather than later since this threat directly involves Aurora and Lucius." Hermione said sitting back in her chair looking at the men in the room. "We can't just expect this to go away, and we'd be fools to think we can conceal her existence from them any longer, and obviously Harry is needing to speak to them both about this case."

"I'll take care of informing my parents about their granddaughter. Potter, can you get a security detail on Aurora, starting today? Where does she go while you're working? It's not that I doubt your parents' abilities to care for her, but if she's being targeted then we can't leave her alone with your parents. They'd all be sitting ducks." Draco said turning and looking at Hermione.

"Oh, well, she's at shell cottage with Fleur and Louie for schooling on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays she is with my parents and Thursdays Theo takes her. We had to come up with, er. Other arraignments after, um, her, well, incident." Hermione replied picking at the nail polish that was already chipping away.

"You mean when she blew up her nursery school? That incident?" Draco asked with the first smirk on his face that she'd seen that morning.

"Well, yes. Caused a bit of a mess she did. Honestly, not too surprising as she is half you." Hermione joked at Draco making him roll his eyes. "We have wards around our property, Harry and Theo's flat is heavily warded as well as shell cottage. Any place that she spends time is completely safe, but I agree with Draco that a security detail is necessary until whoever sent this is caught." Hermione said tapping the copy of the message with her pointer finger.

"Nothing can happen to her." Hermione stated looking at both men, making the nod their heads in agreement.

"Malfoy, when do you plan on speaking with your parents and Astoria? The sooner I can get them all in to talk to the better." Harry said breaking the silence that had started to fall around them.

"I have to be in front of the Wizengamot the rest of the day for the Borgin trial, but I can floo straight to the manor after that. Astoria is still in rehab for a few more weeks and isn't supposed to be receiving visitors unless it's an emergency. I'll see if this constitutes as such, I can't imagine much push back seeing as it is a criminal case." The clock on the wall chiming twice brought the trio out of their conversation and causing Draco to curse a bit.

"I have to get going, Tiberius would happily start without me being there. Let me know if there's anything else that either of you need for this." Draco grabbed his suit jacket that he had tossed over the back of his chair and stood to leave, quickly putting it back on. Hermione found herself distracted watching his movements and didn't register when he'd taken her hand until his lips brushed against her knuckles. "I'll owl you tonight." He said in a low voice, just for her.

With a nod at Harry, Draco swept from the room without a second glance back. Hermione and Harry were left looking between each other, the door Draco just walked through, and the one sentence threat sitting on top of the desk.

"Worst case scenario, someone follows through with this threat and I never see my baby again." Hermione muttered, just loud enough for Harry to hear.

A/N: This was a loaded chapter, was it not? And it was just meeting to go over what all has been found in the case.

From my real life, when Aurora knocks her first birthday cupcake off her tray. My 4yo did that on his first birthday and my husband did capture it on video. He was NOT interested in what I wanted him to do.

Man, okay, as triggers are coming up in the chapters, because shit is going to be HAPPENING, I'm going to mark them in my author notes so you can prepare yourself for it. I promise that this is a happily ever after story.

What's coming up? Hermione has to go back to the Borgin trial and watches him testify. *Trigger Warning for the next chapter! Death of a character (not a main character, but someone's about to die)