Chapter 22- daddy

"Uncle Severus!" Hermione stepped out of the flames to find her children already cleaned of soot and standing with Snape. Before she had a chance to pull out her wand he had cleaned her free of soot as well. She smiled at him and he smirked back. The kids were crawling all over him and soon he had Kessy cradled in one arm, Willow on his shoulders, who was delighted to find she could now touch the ceiling, and Miki by the hand. Hermione walked holding Miki's other hand and she felt right for the first time ever. It had never felt this right with Draco. When they rounded the corner Draco was sitting in the middle of the hallway bound to a chair. He could move but not stand.

Draco had always been one for the drama, so when Hermione saw him, he began to tear up at the sight of the kids she stood in their line of view. She stared down at him with a death glare, clearly letting him know he wasn't going to manipulate the situation.

"You will not cry, or pull any dramatics in front of them. You will not make them cry or try to win them over. Be honest. Tell them the truth, do not tell them a lie to make yourself feel better." She stepped away allowing the kids to see him. Miki ran to him.

"Daddy!" He sat down in his lap. "Where have you been, what happened?" Draco smiled.

"I've been stupid Miki. I'm sorry. I want to know how you have been ... and the girls. Hi Willow, hi Kessy." Willow looked at him disapprovingly.

"You're our old daddy, Draco." She did not leave Snape's shoulders.

"Do you have a new daddy?" Draco looked accusingly at Hermione.

"No, we don't need a Daddy, we have mommy." She crossed her arms and looked like a miniature Snape. Miki looked back up at Draco in an excited way.

"Yea daddy, mommy doesn't even need you, she can take care of all of us by herself. She has been doing really well." Miki turned and smiled at his mom. Hermione didn't say anything. The look on Draco's face was enough.

"Kessy, you want to come see daddy?"

"Uh-uh." She turned her face toward Snape's chest, not looking at him.

"Daddy she doesn't know you anymore." Miki stood up and went back to Snape who took his hand. Draco looked at what was his family at one time, he really did feel like crying. "Daddy, will we see you anymore, my birthday is next weekend."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to be there. I'm going to have to go somewhere that I can't leave for awhile. I will come see you when I get out though, okay?" Miki looked at him like he knew he was lying.

"Yeah, daddy, okay." Hermione turned to Snape.

"Would you mind taking them somewhere for a little while?" Snape nodded and looked at the kids. His face split into a smile Hermione had never seen, then she heard something she thought she would never hear out of Severus Snape.

"I really want some rocky road ice cream, who want's to go?" Hermione thought she would faint.

"Me, me, me!!" The kids all yelled in unison and they walked down the hall and turned the corner. Hermione turned to the inspector.

"What's the situation, do I loose the money he owes me again? Where is he going?" She looked very angry at the authority figures.

"Well it seems Ms Granger that Mr. Malfoy has been very busy the last six months. Not only has he evaded our warrants for the child support he has been holding back tax money, opening muggle bank and credit accounts and has been forging your signature on documents in order to get more money and sell properties that were in your name." Hermione looked at him dumbfounded. She and Draco had never had any property. She had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn't let on.

"Are any of the properties left?" He flipped through a muggle style clip board which held many parchments.

"Yes there is the school term house outside of Hogsmead and an original, one of a kind handcrafted quantum brrom." Hermione couldn't believe her ears.

"These properties are in my and Draco's name?"

"No mam, solely yours. I'm sure you know that no properties were allowed to be in the Malfoy name after the, well you know. We assumes that was why everything was in your name. So that they could keep it in the family." He looked up at her worriedly.

"It's fine, you haven't done anything wrong. The broom, will that cover your taxes? It worth thousands of galleons?"

"Yes mam, it will be fine, we just want to know what all he was trying to sneak out of the country, that's why we had you bring the money."

"Sneak, out of the country? What did I miss?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Granger. When we got the call from Professor Snape it was to tell us that he had apprehended Draco Malfoy. We have had quite a few arrest warrants out for him. The one for child support, one for attempting to own property in his name, the accounts. One for breaking the muggle/wizard restriction policies, plus the muggles have quite a few out on him for bank and credit card fraud. He has been getting bank accounts and credit card accounts in your name and other peoples names. We will straighten it up so that you will not have to worry about it. Basically he was liquidating all his assets and had gotten the money you took from him and was headed out of the country. He came to Professor Snape to help him. I guess he didn't get what he wanted. All I need to do is catalogue the possessions from earlier to get a clear understanding of what he was leaving with." She handed him the money, told him about the credit cards, but not what she spent, and waited. It only took a second and Hermione was handed the money back along with a stack of papers.

"This is all the information, the deeds to the property and such, keys to the house, everything is in there. If there is any money left after we auction the broom you will receive a check. I just need you to sign here, Now seeing that your husband will be incarcerated, you have the opportunity to divorce your husband with out having to wait the standard length of time. You just need to go to the ministry and they will tell you what to do." He smiled at her as he tipped his hat and walked to talk to his partner. Hermione walked over to Draco.

"For what it's worth. I'm sorry Hermione?"

"Would you have been sorry if you hadn't gotten caught?" She glared down ay him, knowing the true answer. "Was it worth it? Was the six months of whatever it is you did worth everything that you have lost, including your freedom?" Draco looked away from her, not knowing what to say. "Did you even do anything good? Exciting? Fun? Do you even have a good story to tell, because I do." She walked away with her head held high and went to find her kids.