"When Dumbledore had asked for a small amount of the potion involved in
time travel, I never imagined that he would be transporting two Gryffindor
monsters!" Professor Severus Snape exclaimed. The good Potions Master
usually exuded self-control; this was not one of those times.
Draco sat across from Professor Snape in Snape's quarters, located in the dank, dark Dungeons. It had been a few days since his discussion with Leah regarding their mutual ancestry, and he was desperate to confide in someone. "Not just any two Gryffindor brats, though, Professor. He decided to transport my /daughters/."
Snape was well acquainted with Leah Malfoy, despite the fact that he had never heard her full name. She had come into his class almost a month after term had started, much to his chagrin, missing out on all those first-day introductions that made the rest of his students cower in fear. "The crimson-haired child, Leah - that is the only information Dumbledore would tell me about her - she is your daughter?" he questioned, disbelievingly.
"Yes, as is the short blonde one you often see conversing with the portrait outside Slytherin Tower. Her name is Rachel."
"If I did not hear the words coming from you, I would never have believed it. That little rambunctious thing I see following you to dinner, often sitting outside of Potions?"
Draco smiled. "Yes."
"The older Miss Malfoy is actually quite adept with Potions - the first student since the late Miss Granger to actually know that Hillier's extract is used in Potions for dental remedies. It was quite surprising, but now that I know her lineage, it perhaps makes a little more sense. I have caught her, of course, attempting to burrow a hole through my head with intense stares, but other than that, not a sound from her except when she wants me to check the accuracy of her potion. " His thin lips curled into something resembling a smile.
"No kidding?" Draco asked.
"In all seriousness. The child has an extreme distaste for me as a person despite a penchant for the subject."
"Whereas most people have an extreme distaste for both you and the subject?" Draco could not help but pick on his Head of House when the opportunity arose.
"This is true." Snape's look changed into something more thoughtful. "I am wondering, though, why a Malfoy would be sorted into Gryffindor. The child clearly displays many typically Slytherin personality traits, from what I have seen in Potions alone. I have never had to reprimand Miss Malfoy, and this rarely occurs with those Gryffindors."
"She was never sorted into Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore placed her and the little one in Gryffindor since they had available beds together. You know, Granger and Patil's. In her own time, though, Leah was sorted Ravenclaw. Thoroughly disappointing to a father, but I would rather Ravenclaw than Gryffindor."
"There is still hope though. The little one has not been sorted yet."
"Don't get me started on the little one!" Draco said, absolutely frustrated. "That child will not give me a moment's peace! She is always around, always following me. 'Daddy, let's go here,' and 'Daddy, let's go there.' I see her at the Quidditch pitch, at dinner, in the morning before Astronomy and in the afternoon after Advanced Potions. She will not leave me alone! I do not know what I am going to do. We spend so much time together, and she looks so much like me. . . Someone is bound to figure out that she is my offspring, because, really, she is the spitting image of me."
Snape looked amused. "If I did not know you any better, Mr. Malfoy, I would say that you are a tad pleased with the fact that the child resembles you so strongly, considering the fact that the older one, other than her eyes, bears little in way of your features."
"Well, I suppose I am satisfied. It is nice to know that their mother - whomever she is- may have been able to subdue me into marriage, but did not dominate me in genetics." An almost contended sigh passed through his lips. "That child, though, is constantly with me, always talking - ALWAYS talking. You have no idea. . ."
"Mr. Malfoy, you must remember, I am employed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, surrounded by sniveling brats day in and day out. You are experiencing just a touch of the nightmare that I call my life."
******
He watched the three of them as they walked down the hall. Standing shadowed in a corner of the Dungeons, he saw Ginny reach down and tickle Rachel, who held hands with Leah. Leah had a huge smile on her face, a rare occurrence indeed.
His time had been filled playing surrogate daddy to these girls whom he would help create some time in the future. These girls who had his eyes, his attitude and his demeanor. These girls who looked at him as though he could save them from any peril known in this world. These girls with whom he had such a strong connection that it scared him.
Someone had to have given birth to these children. A woman who gave them their infectious laugh, and their strength. A woman who gave the older one her red hair and the younger one a tendency to talk at a breakneck speed. Who on earth could he have conceived these two girls with? Was she from Hogwarts? Perhaps he followed the advice of his mother and married Pansy Parkinson. Maybe their mother was Millicent Bulstrode? Blaise Zabini resembled the Rat in a way, but he was sure she just took after him more than her mother. Maybe he ended up with an underclassman that he did not currently know. Any number of the girls he knew fit the position.
Rachel and Leah, though, were still unwilling to answer any questions about their mother. All he knew for sure was that she was a "good mummy," which Rachel would tell him whenever he asked about their mysterious mother. Their information did not do him a hell of a lot of good.
He followed the trio up the corridor, out of the Dungeons, and into the main chamber of Hogwarts adjacent to the Great Hall. It was dinnertime and the rest of Hogwarts was loud in the Hall, busily consuming their meals. Leah and Rachel broke off from Ginny and went into the Great Hall, but Ginny continued on. Draco figured she was heading to Gryffindor Tower. He followed her through the bare corridors, not quite sure why he had this desperate need to tail her.
"Ginny! Wait up!" he shouted behind her as she approached the Fat Lady's portrait.
Her flaming hair bounced as she turned her head to see the man calling her name. It was dark. "Malfoy?" she questioned, disbelieving. Her eyes darted from side to side, worried, perhaps about someone seeing her with Malfoy, but more likely because she was indeed alone with Malfoy. He stopped right in front of her. "Leah and Rachel are at dinner."
"I know. I saw them walk in. It was you I wanted to talk to."
"About?" she asked quizzically.
His mind raced a mile a minute. He needed an excuse. "The girls."
"What about the girls?"
"How are they doing?"
"Fine. The same as when you saw them this morning."
"Oh. . . I was just wondering."
"Is Rachel still playing your shadow? Between class and such, the only free time I have falls when she is with you," Ginny replied. "She idolizes you."
"I don't know if 'idolizes' is the right word, but, yes, Rachel and I do get along remarkably well."
"Not the only thing you two have in common, is it? She also greatly resembles you. Why is that?"
"Coincidence, maybe?"
"But not so coincidental that not only do you share the same, rare, gray eyes but also the tendency to sneer? What is going on here, Malfoy?"
He sputtered, trying to think of something, anything to say.
"I am not that stupid. Really. You are not the most delightful person I know, and yet Rachel takes to you like a duck to water." Ginny looked at him suspiciously. "You are related to the girls, aren't you?"
A real Slytherin would deny it. A real Slytherin would do whatever it takes to keep his own secret, but he said nothing. There was no denying it now.
"Cousins? Or maybe the most revered Lucius Malfoy had a mistress on the side who bore him two daughters?"
He could easily explain the eerie coincidences by lying, by saying, yes, in fact, those two were his half-siblings whose mother could not care for them at the moment. And he was about to spout that story, when Ginny interrupted him again.
She stepped back and looked him directly in his gray eyes. "On more than one occasion, I have heard Rachel refer to you as her father."
"She could be a confused little girl," he attempted pathetically.
"You can describe Rachel in any number of ways, confused is not one of them. She is one of the most aware seven year olds I have ever met."
Just as his daughters had accomplished on the night of their first meeting, Draco Malfoy was a defeated man. He retreated to that same bench just beyond the Gryffindor portrait where they had had their first dark encounter and stared down at his hands. She sat next to him. "She refers to me as her father because I am her father. Both of the girls' father."
Ginny paused a moment to take this in. "Their father? You're only seventeen! Leah is twelve. It can't be right."
"They have been transported here from some point in the future. I don't really know the logistics of it. Dumbledore won't tell Leah, Rachel or me anything regarding the reason. Leah reads every night because she thinks some book may tell her why they're here instead of at home, in their own time."
"So, they're your daughters?" she repeated. "I must say, you spawn some very friendly children. I would never have thought you capable of that, Malfoy."
"Me neither, but then their mother also played some part in it, I suppose.."
"Who is their mother?"
"No idea. They won't tell me. They'll tease me about it to no end, but refuse to tell me. Malicious pair of monsters, aren't they?"
"No, not malicious. Just incredibly like their father. The Slytherin in them comes out occasionally. If it didn't, I would be worried that your future wife may have been fraternizing with the milkman, if you catch my drift."
"The eyes, the sneer, the Rat's hair. Trust me, they're mine." Malfoy moved closer to Ginny. She slowly became aware of the darkness, of the lack of people here outside Gryffindor. Things happen in the dark, it shields consequences until the morning light. Suddenly, a chill caught her back. This - what Malfoy wanted - could not happen, if that was what he was coming for.
"I. . . ummm, Ginny, I wanted to thank you for helping me out with them. Your involvement with them and everything, watching over them, I appreciate all of it."
"It was my pleasure, they really are sweet children. A little frightened when I first met them, but as we loosened up with each other. . ." but she never had the opportunity to finish the sentence.
His lips settled on hers quickly, like a predator pouncing on its well- stalked prey. It was a quick, fluid motion, but it took Ginny a few seconds to realize what was happening. She fell into him, letting him mold her lips to his, his arm curling around her neck to bring her closer.
Even while it was happening, Ginny was having a difficult time believing that it was. That Draco Malfoy, Slytherin bastard, was currently kissing her. Her mouth was not only part of her being utilized; every part of her was involved in getting closer to Malfoy.
Too close. They were too close. And if she let it continue, this would be doing a disservice to her family. It would ruin all the things her dead brothers had taught her about Slytherins and Malfoys and all those other bad things running free at Hogwarts. Things that Harry had put up with for years. . . This had to stop.
Ginny used every last ounce of strength she had to push Draco backwards, her mind half drowning with need for him, the other swimming in memories of those lessons taught by her brothers - and Harry.
". . .Harry. . ." she whispered, as she felt the cold air on her face, Malfoy's lips pulling away from her own.
" 'Harry'?" Malfoy repeated, getting up from the bench. She opened her eyes to see Draco looking at her, disgusted. " 'Harry?' I kiss you and all you can say is 'Harry?'"
Ginny was speechless. She didn't even know she had said his name.
"Potter. Is. Dead," he said pointedly through clenched teeth. "But then look at me - stupid me. I actually thought you might have gotten over Potter in the last six, seven months, but that will never happen, will it?"
"Draco, wait," she started, pleadingly. "I. . ."
"I will never measure up to Saint Potter, will I? You will always be in love with him, be that foolish young girl with a crush on the savior of the wizarding world, won't you, Ginny? That's fine, Weasley, that's fine. I was the one that initiated this foray into stupidity, but let me tell you something. You can pine over Potter all you want, spend the rest of your life thinking about what might have been, what should have been, but while you're sitting there alone in your self-imposed spinsterhood, know that you passed up the opportunity to be with me - a real, living Malfoy interested in you."
He gave her a moment to take in his words before stalking away towards the Great Hall.
****
"The game hen was really good tonight," Leah said, walking toward Gryffindor. It had been a long day for both sisters - Leah had had a Care of Magical Creatures examination, while Rachel had had to assist Hagrid in wrangling up the monthalensks for the exam itself. Rachel adored spending time with Hagrid (and Fang, of course), and for Leah, Magical Creatures was the one class (other than Potions) that posed no problem for her. It had been long, but fulfilling.
"So far, I haven't figure out much about why we're here, but this is what I know," Leah started. Leah gave Rachel a constant update on where her search was going. Rachel may have been young, and sometimes had difficulty paying attention for long periods of time, but she was also as smart as a whip, often pointing out simple things Leah often missed. "I think the key either lies with Grandfather Lucius' mother, Marilla or Grandmother Narcissa. I know more than enough information about Lucius' father, Lucian, to determine that the Malfoys have not had any trouble for centuries. The Echelons had a lot of enemies - I'm trying to narrow them down. And I do not even have a maiden name for Marilla. I need to talk to Madam Pince about that."
"That book in the library about famous wizards with yellow hair- did you check that out?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, I did."
"Look the Echelons up in that. Grandma Molly has a schoolwide snap from Uncle Bill's first year, and Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa are definitely in it. She pointed it out to me - and it looked like Narcissa had yellow hair. Maybe look 'em up in there."
Rounding the corner, Rachel saw the scene before Leah did. Her parents were sitting on a bench in front of Gryffindor Tower, kissing. It jarred her, since her parents were rarely that expressive with each other. Rachel took a breath, she was going to say something, Leah could feel it, but not before Leah pulled her backwards. The older girl took in the scene, saw her parents kissing rather passionately, and it somehow comforted her knowing that at one point there was an attraction. Rachel, of course, reacted the way she had the night they had met their young father, with "blech" being repeated quietly. . . and often.
She wanted to leave her parents in their moment. "Let's go into Gryffindor, Rache. I think they need to be alone."
"Yeah, I'm sleepy. Can you believe it?" the little girl asked. "Mummy and Daddy were KISSING. You know what that means, right?"
"What?" Leah asked, quietly telling the Fat Lady the password.
"You know how it works, right? Mummy and Daddy fall in love, and they kiss, then they get married and have a baby! You're going to be born soon!" Rachel had an excited look on her face, as if the prospect of being around a baby was more than she could take. A new replacement for Harriette!
Rachel hopped into Common Room, allowing Leah a moment alone to focus backwards on her parents, knowing that this moment she was witnessing would lead to changes galore in their lives.
Author's Note: Despite the fact that I just recently posted a chapter this past Monday, Jan. 21st, I wanted to post this next chapter especially for a dedicated reviewer, Anaxandra, who wanted some D/G action. I hope this is suitable.
Draco sat across from Professor Snape in Snape's quarters, located in the dank, dark Dungeons. It had been a few days since his discussion with Leah regarding their mutual ancestry, and he was desperate to confide in someone. "Not just any two Gryffindor brats, though, Professor. He decided to transport my /daughters/."
Snape was well acquainted with Leah Malfoy, despite the fact that he had never heard her full name. She had come into his class almost a month after term had started, much to his chagrin, missing out on all those first-day introductions that made the rest of his students cower in fear. "The crimson-haired child, Leah - that is the only information Dumbledore would tell me about her - she is your daughter?" he questioned, disbelievingly.
"Yes, as is the short blonde one you often see conversing with the portrait outside Slytherin Tower. Her name is Rachel."
"If I did not hear the words coming from you, I would never have believed it. That little rambunctious thing I see following you to dinner, often sitting outside of Potions?"
Draco smiled. "Yes."
"The older Miss Malfoy is actually quite adept with Potions - the first student since the late Miss Granger to actually know that Hillier's extract is used in Potions for dental remedies. It was quite surprising, but now that I know her lineage, it perhaps makes a little more sense. I have caught her, of course, attempting to burrow a hole through my head with intense stares, but other than that, not a sound from her except when she wants me to check the accuracy of her potion. " His thin lips curled into something resembling a smile.
"No kidding?" Draco asked.
"In all seriousness. The child has an extreme distaste for me as a person despite a penchant for the subject."
"Whereas most people have an extreme distaste for both you and the subject?" Draco could not help but pick on his Head of House when the opportunity arose.
"This is true." Snape's look changed into something more thoughtful. "I am wondering, though, why a Malfoy would be sorted into Gryffindor. The child clearly displays many typically Slytherin personality traits, from what I have seen in Potions alone. I have never had to reprimand Miss Malfoy, and this rarely occurs with those Gryffindors."
"She was never sorted into Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore placed her and the little one in Gryffindor since they had available beds together. You know, Granger and Patil's. In her own time, though, Leah was sorted Ravenclaw. Thoroughly disappointing to a father, but I would rather Ravenclaw than Gryffindor."
"There is still hope though. The little one has not been sorted yet."
"Don't get me started on the little one!" Draco said, absolutely frustrated. "That child will not give me a moment's peace! She is always around, always following me. 'Daddy, let's go here,' and 'Daddy, let's go there.' I see her at the Quidditch pitch, at dinner, in the morning before Astronomy and in the afternoon after Advanced Potions. She will not leave me alone! I do not know what I am going to do. We spend so much time together, and she looks so much like me. . . Someone is bound to figure out that she is my offspring, because, really, she is the spitting image of me."
Snape looked amused. "If I did not know you any better, Mr. Malfoy, I would say that you are a tad pleased with the fact that the child resembles you so strongly, considering the fact that the older one, other than her eyes, bears little in way of your features."
"Well, I suppose I am satisfied. It is nice to know that their mother - whomever she is- may have been able to subdue me into marriage, but did not dominate me in genetics." An almost contended sigh passed through his lips. "That child, though, is constantly with me, always talking - ALWAYS talking. You have no idea. . ."
"Mr. Malfoy, you must remember, I am employed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, surrounded by sniveling brats day in and day out. You are experiencing just a touch of the nightmare that I call my life."
******
He watched the three of them as they walked down the hall. Standing shadowed in a corner of the Dungeons, he saw Ginny reach down and tickle Rachel, who held hands with Leah. Leah had a huge smile on her face, a rare occurrence indeed.
His time had been filled playing surrogate daddy to these girls whom he would help create some time in the future. These girls who had his eyes, his attitude and his demeanor. These girls who looked at him as though he could save them from any peril known in this world. These girls with whom he had such a strong connection that it scared him.
Someone had to have given birth to these children. A woman who gave them their infectious laugh, and their strength. A woman who gave the older one her red hair and the younger one a tendency to talk at a breakneck speed. Who on earth could he have conceived these two girls with? Was she from Hogwarts? Perhaps he followed the advice of his mother and married Pansy Parkinson. Maybe their mother was Millicent Bulstrode? Blaise Zabini resembled the Rat in a way, but he was sure she just took after him more than her mother. Maybe he ended up with an underclassman that he did not currently know. Any number of the girls he knew fit the position.
Rachel and Leah, though, were still unwilling to answer any questions about their mother. All he knew for sure was that she was a "good mummy," which Rachel would tell him whenever he asked about their mysterious mother. Their information did not do him a hell of a lot of good.
He followed the trio up the corridor, out of the Dungeons, and into the main chamber of Hogwarts adjacent to the Great Hall. It was dinnertime and the rest of Hogwarts was loud in the Hall, busily consuming their meals. Leah and Rachel broke off from Ginny and went into the Great Hall, but Ginny continued on. Draco figured she was heading to Gryffindor Tower. He followed her through the bare corridors, not quite sure why he had this desperate need to tail her.
"Ginny! Wait up!" he shouted behind her as she approached the Fat Lady's portrait.
Her flaming hair bounced as she turned her head to see the man calling her name. It was dark. "Malfoy?" she questioned, disbelieving. Her eyes darted from side to side, worried, perhaps about someone seeing her with Malfoy, but more likely because she was indeed alone with Malfoy. He stopped right in front of her. "Leah and Rachel are at dinner."
"I know. I saw them walk in. It was you I wanted to talk to."
"About?" she asked quizzically.
His mind raced a mile a minute. He needed an excuse. "The girls."
"What about the girls?"
"How are they doing?"
"Fine. The same as when you saw them this morning."
"Oh. . . I was just wondering."
"Is Rachel still playing your shadow? Between class and such, the only free time I have falls when she is with you," Ginny replied. "She idolizes you."
"I don't know if 'idolizes' is the right word, but, yes, Rachel and I do get along remarkably well."
"Not the only thing you two have in common, is it? She also greatly resembles you. Why is that?"
"Coincidence, maybe?"
"But not so coincidental that not only do you share the same, rare, gray eyes but also the tendency to sneer? What is going on here, Malfoy?"
He sputtered, trying to think of something, anything to say.
"I am not that stupid. Really. You are not the most delightful person I know, and yet Rachel takes to you like a duck to water." Ginny looked at him suspiciously. "You are related to the girls, aren't you?"
A real Slytherin would deny it. A real Slytherin would do whatever it takes to keep his own secret, but he said nothing. There was no denying it now.
"Cousins? Or maybe the most revered Lucius Malfoy had a mistress on the side who bore him two daughters?"
He could easily explain the eerie coincidences by lying, by saying, yes, in fact, those two were his half-siblings whose mother could not care for them at the moment. And he was about to spout that story, when Ginny interrupted him again.
She stepped back and looked him directly in his gray eyes. "On more than one occasion, I have heard Rachel refer to you as her father."
"She could be a confused little girl," he attempted pathetically.
"You can describe Rachel in any number of ways, confused is not one of them. She is one of the most aware seven year olds I have ever met."
Just as his daughters had accomplished on the night of their first meeting, Draco Malfoy was a defeated man. He retreated to that same bench just beyond the Gryffindor portrait where they had had their first dark encounter and stared down at his hands. She sat next to him. "She refers to me as her father because I am her father. Both of the girls' father."
Ginny paused a moment to take this in. "Their father? You're only seventeen! Leah is twelve. It can't be right."
"They have been transported here from some point in the future. I don't really know the logistics of it. Dumbledore won't tell Leah, Rachel or me anything regarding the reason. Leah reads every night because she thinks some book may tell her why they're here instead of at home, in their own time."
"So, they're your daughters?" she repeated. "I must say, you spawn some very friendly children. I would never have thought you capable of that, Malfoy."
"Me neither, but then their mother also played some part in it, I suppose.."
"Who is their mother?"
"No idea. They won't tell me. They'll tease me about it to no end, but refuse to tell me. Malicious pair of monsters, aren't they?"
"No, not malicious. Just incredibly like their father. The Slytherin in them comes out occasionally. If it didn't, I would be worried that your future wife may have been fraternizing with the milkman, if you catch my drift."
"The eyes, the sneer, the Rat's hair. Trust me, they're mine." Malfoy moved closer to Ginny. She slowly became aware of the darkness, of the lack of people here outside Gryffindor. Things happen in the dark, it shields consequences until the morning light. Suddenly, a chill caught her back. This - what Malfoy wanted - could not happen, if that was what he was coming for.
"I. . . ummm, Ginny, I wanted to thank you for helping me out with them. Your involvement with them and everything, watching over them, I appreciate all of it."
"It was my pleasure, they really are sweet children. A little frightened when I first met them, but as we loosened up with each other. . ." but she never had the opportunity to finish the sentence.
His lips settled on hers quickly, like a predator pouncing on its well- stalked prey. It was a quick, fluid motion, but it took Ginny a few seconds to realize what was happening. She fell into him, letting him mold her lips to his, his arm curling around her neck to bring her closer.
Even while it was happening, Ginny was having a difficult time believing that it was. That Draco Malfoy, Slytherin bastard, was currently kissing her. Her mouth was not only part of her being utilized; every part of her was involved in getting closer to Malfoy.
Too close. They were too close. And if she let it continue, this would be doing a disservice to her family. It would ruin all the things her dead brothers had taught her about Slytherins and Malfoys and all those other bad things running free at Hogwarts. Things that Harry had put up with for years. . . This had to stop.
Ginny used every last ounce of strength she had to push Draco backwards, her mind half drowning with need for him, the other swimming in memories of those lessons taught by her brothers - and Harry.
". . .Harry. . ." she whispered, as she felt the cold air on her face, Malfoy's lips pulling away from her own.
" 'Harry'?" Malfoy repeated, getting up from the bench. She opened her eyes to see Draco looking at her, disgusted. " 'Harry?' I kiss you and all you can say is 'Harry?'"
Ginny was speechless. She didn't even know she had said his name.
"Potter. Is. Dead," he said pointedly through clenched teeth. "But then look at me - stupid me. I actually thought you might have gotten over Potter in the last six, seven months, but that will never happen, will it?"
"Draco, wait," she started, pleadingly. "I. . ."
"I will never measure up to Saint Potter, will I? You will always be in love with him, be that foolish young girl with a crush on the savior of the wizarding world, won't you, Ginny? That's fine, Weasley, that's fine. I was the one that initiated this foray into stupidity, but let me tell you something. You can pine over Potter all you want, spend the rest of your life thinking about what might have been, what should have been, but while you're sitting there alone in your self-imposed spinsterhood, know that you passed up the opportunity to be with me - a real, living Malfoy interested in you."
He gave her a moment to take in his words before stalking away towards the Great Hall.
****
"The game hen was really good tonight," Leah said, walking toward Gryffindor. It had been a long day for both sisters - Leah had had a Care of Magical Creatures examination, while Rachel had had to assist Hagrid in wrangling up the monthalensks for the exam itself. Rachel adored spending time with Hagrid (and Fang, of course), and for Leah, Magical Creatures was the one class (other than Potions) that posed no problem for her. It had been long, but fulfilling.
"So far, I haven't figure out much about why we're here, but this is what I know," Leah started. Leah gave Rachel a constant update on where her search was going. Rachel may have been young, and sometimes had difficulty paying attention for long periods of time, but she was also as smart as a whip, often pointing out simple things Leah often missed. "I think the key either lies with Grandfather Lucius' mother, Marilla or Grandmother Narcissa. I know more than enough information about Lucius' father, Lucian, to determine that the Malfoys have not had any trouble for centuries. The Echelons had a lot of enemies - I'm trying to narrow them down. And I do not even have a maiden name for Marilla. I need to talk to Madam Pince about that."
"That book in the library about famous wizards with yellow hair- did you check that out?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, I did."
"Look the Echelons up in that. Grandma Molly has a schoolwide snap from Uncle Bill's first year, and Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa are definitely in it. She pointed it out to me - and it looked like Narcissa had yellow hair. Maybe look 'em up in there."
Rounding the corner, Rachel saw the scene before Leah did. Her parents were sitting on a bench in front of Gryffindor Tower, kissing. It jarred her, since her parents were rarely that expressive with each other. Rachel took a breath, she was going to say something, Leah could feel it, but not before Leah pulled her backwards. The older girl took in the scene, saw her parents kissing rather passionately, and it somehow comforted her knowing that at one point there was an attraction. Rachel, of course, reacted the way she had the night they had met their young father, with "blech" being repeated quietly. . . and often.
She wanted to leave her parents in their moment. "Let's go into Gryffindor, Rache. I think they need to be alone."
"Yeah, I'm sleepy. Can you believe it?" the little girl asked. "Mummy and Daddy were KISSING. You know what that means, right?"
"What?" Leah asked, quietly telling the Fat Lady the password.
"You know how it works, right? Mummy and Daddy fall in love, and they kiss, then they get married and have a baby! You're going to be born soon!" Rachel had an excited look on her face, as if the prospect of being around a baby was more than she could take. A new replacement for Harriette!
Rachel hopped into Common Room, allowing Leah a moment alone to focus backwards on her parents, knowing that this moment she was witnessing would lead to changes galore in their lives.
Author's Note: Despite the fact that I just recently posted a chapter this past Monday, Jan. 21st, I wanted to post this next chapter especially for a dedicated reviewer, Anaxandra, who wanted some D/G action. I hope this is suitable.