Ch 4_The Collision

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"Wrong answer." And with that Draco left Hermione standing, speechless. She hadn't a clue what she was going to do at this point. Everyone had to have known about it but did everyone know about her flip out and the curse and did people see her and did they know she lost eligibility for Prefect and Head Girl yesterday even though today that was null and void? Did they know? Did they not know? What did they know? Did they know she was a Pure Soul? Did they know what a Pure Soul was? She was completely lost.

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"And then there were two," Hermione articulated, sighing, and turned to the cooing baby girl in her arms. "I guess I'll go flaunt you around to everyone then." She transfigured the blanket she was draped in into some nice baby clothes and left. Upon her arrival at the Gryffindor Common Room, everyone stared at her and the child in her arms.

"Hermione!" said Ron and Harry together by the fire, their voices combining to assert her entrance a bit louder than she would've preferred. "Hermione, where've you been? We wanted to go upstairs to look for you! But you know the problem with that..." trailed off Ron, referring to the regrettable incident of last year.

Hermione noticed all eyes from all around the Common Room on her. Apparently everyone had been talking about her, as the room was quiet as well. Awkwardly, she sat down, remembering the little bundle-of-joy in her arms. "Um, hey guys... I was in the Prefect Common Room, being reassigned as a Prefect because of a little outburst I had yesterday, due to a spell called the Random Nightmare. No big deal, really..." she declared to the entire common room, rather nervously. Everyone now knowing the whole-less exciting- truth looked a bit disappointed, and turned back shortly to their incessant gossip. Turning to Harry and Ron, she perched Alyssa on her knee, and said to them, "This is Alyssa. The spawn of Satan and me. Muggle reference… But isn't she adorable?" she squealed.

Lavender and Parvati separated themselves from their group and came scrambling over at the sight of their baby. "Wow, Hermione! She looks just like you! And Malfoy, of course."

"But that's not a bad thing..." said Parvati, covering for her friend with a wink.

Shrugging, Hermione began again, "Do you like her hair? I think it's really pretty."

Ron and Harry exchanged horrified looks, as they understood they were now entailed to a three-hour lecture from Lavender and Parvati about exactly what they think. "Well..." initiated Parvati.

 They continued talking to Hermione, who was acting a lot girlier in their presence. She handed the baby to Harry after a while, muttering something that sounded like, "Would you mind, Harry? Oh thanks you guys... Maybe you can get Sean to come and play with her or something.." 

Ron shrugged. "Well, Padma is coming around soon to trade him off..."

"Oh, Ron, that's a horrible way to refer to it. It's more like... Never mind. Er, Hermione, whatever happened to Malfoy, anyway?" asked Harry gawkily.

"Huh? Oh, selfish prat took off. What time is it now anyway?"

"Almost two."

"Right, then I have an hour before I abdicate my position of mother. Oh, God. I just had a dreadful thought. What if...?"

"What's the matter?"

"What if Malfoy and the Slytherins dilute Alyssa's mind with muggle hating and teach her how to say... 'Mudblood'?"

"Oh, is that all? We'll just pound him to a pulp, 'Mione. No big deal," Ron announced.

"But the damage will already be done!" she stressed.

"Just breathe, 'Mione. He wouldn't dream of it. And she's too young to understand anyway. And it's not as if he was going to bring her home to his family for a good muggle sacrifice..." said Harry assuredly.

"You don't know that!" The boys rolled their eyes. Hermione debated whether to tell them that they were both alleged Pure Souls. She decided against it, thinking it was a trifling fact, and decided to focus more on whether anyone else was. Then a thought occurred to her. Was there such thing as the opposite? Someone who when they walk into a room, fear arises within a person? A cold feeling perhaps? And if so... what happens if they were to have children... Could the Dark Soul be transformed into a Pure Soul? What if Malfoy were a Dark Soul? What would that make Alyssa? Does being a Pure or Dark Soul mean that you have a surplus of magic? More powerful? Are Dementors made from diminished Dark Souls? Hermione pondered and turned over each question in her head. She knew she'd have to discuss this with Dumbledore one day.

Hermione was enjoying her time with her daughter and her best friends… until Alyssa got hungry. Hermione was oblivious as to what her tears might've meant, and if it hadn't been for Ron, who'd been in the same pickle yesterday, she was sure Alyssa would have starved.

"Hermione, you're supposed to give her regular food. She's got teeth and stuff now. She'll like what you like. I think."

"Right… Let's go to the kitchen then. Harry, Ron, are you coming?" she asked them when she saw them already involved in an enthusiastic conversation with Seamus and Dean about Quidditch. "Guess it's just the two of us again then, love," she looked down into her baby's silvery eyes. They were identical to her father's, yet so different. So warm. So beautiful. So familiar, and yet… so different.

Wandering through the hall, she observed how very perceptive Alyssa turned out. Her tiny silvery orbs widened as they turned every corner of the mysterious castle. Finally they reached the portrait granting entrance to the kitchen. Just as Hermione was going to tickle the pear, she heard a voice calling her name behind her. "Hermione!" It was Ginny.

"Hey Gin."

"Hey. Harry and Ron told me you were here. I missed you yesterday and today. I just woke up." She and Hermione had become good friends over the years, and now that she'd gotten over Harry, she was with them pretty often. "I wanted to see your baby! What's her name?"

"Alyssa. You want to help me feed her?"

"Cool."

By the time they had finished, it was already three o'clock. "Gin, I have to go bring Alyssa to the Prefect Common Room for Malfoy, you want to come?"

"Sure. So... What's it like? Knowing that you get to spend all that time with Malfoy?"

"'Get' to spend, Ginny? What do you mean? Who'd want to spend the rest of the year with him?"

"I would! He's so hot! Maybe an egotistical, belligerent jerky bastard, but you have to admit that he's seriously hot!"

"Actually... I haven't thought about it. His bad qualities seem to seriously surpass his good ones. Though now that you mention it..." Hermione trailed off, considering Ginny's point. 'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad? No… This IS Malfoy we're talking about.'

Ginny shook her head at Hermione. "You know you're a disgrace to girls everywhere. We have our whole lives to like the right boys. The whole fun of being a teenager is being shallow!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You know, Gin, I'm really worried that Malfoy's going to turn her into a muggle hating... muggle hater."

"Hermione, don't be so paranoid. What's he going to do? Bring her home to a nice muggle sacrifice?"

"You don't know that!" screamed Hermione, sensing severe déjà vu. "Sorry!" she squealed to stunned innocent passing bystanders.

"Wow, Hermione. Just because his dad is a raving homicidal lunatic, and he was brought up to be one, and admires his father and tries to mimic him down to the tiniest detail... doesn't mean that he is one... does it?"

"He sure acts like it..."

"True... but he can't be as bad as Lucy Malfoy!" The girls chuckled and Hermione went back to her state of angst.

Ginny sighed deeply. She didn't like seeing Hermione like this. 'It's just an assignment. She doesn't expect to keep the kid, did she? Why is it bothering her so much? Why does she care about Malfoy? I will never know...' Ginny deliberated.

"You know, he does have a softer side. Or… something." Ginny looked confused, and didn't understand at what Hermione was getting. "I walked in on him in the Prefect Bathroom," Ginny's eyes widened, "I didn't see anything! But... he was reading... a muggle book." Ginny looked taken aback. "And it was a really good one. I read it. And... it was a nonfiction about a boy named, Jennings, who lived a horribly hard life. It was touching. And I just couldn't ever imagine a person like Malfoy reading something like that. It was so... surprising..."

"You're telling me..." said Ginny. They walked the rest of the way in silence. Now Ginny understood why she cared about Malfoy. It was just in her nature to care and nurture, and her thirst to know why. More or less.

Eventually, they reached the Prefect Common Room, and Draco Malfoy was nowhere in sight. 

"Ugh, Ginny, where do you think the mangy git is now, anyway?"

"Right here." Malfoy emerged from under an Invisibility Cloak before she had time to reply.

Meanwhile... "Malfoy! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Just another perk of skulking in the shadows. And wow, Granger, you are a spastic freak..." She sneered at him in response.

"What did I tell you, Gin?" Ginny made a face, and tugged a wisp of vivid red behind her ear.

"I hate to break up such a lovely conversation, but I think, Hermione, it's time you give Alyssa up to Malfoy."

Hermione was suspicious of him. She still wasn't sure if she trusted Draco not to murk up their child's mind with his notions of purity. It took a while, but reluctantly, she concluded that she'd have to give her up to him sometime. Malfoy reached out to take Alyssa, and when she was in his arms, he held her up close to his body, and once again it became apparent -to the extremely insightful Hermione at least- that he'd softened a bit, though he was by no circumstance any more readable.

"Right well, when do you want her back?"

"Um, I'll take her again tomorrow before breakfast. In front of the Great Hall."

"Fine. Then I'll take her again after lunch."

"Great," she said actually pleasantly.

Noticing the change in her tone, he changed his to appear more irritable. "Right," he repeated, raising his eyebrow as though a hook-strongly resembling Snape's nose-had penetrated it and began raising his whole body with it.

Hermione sighed as a result of his smugness, and went over to kiss Alyssa good-bye. Draco was now holding her almost cheek to cheek, so that she could lay her head on his shoulder anytime. Hermione leaned in to kiss Alyssa, wishing that she would stop squirming so much. She almost kissed her cheek, but Alyssa instead made a violent jerk, causing Hermione to collide with Draco, and she ended up kissing his cheek instead. Both of the couple's expressions changed so quickly it was hard to tell what they were thinking. Draco first paled then returned to his normal pallor, then paled even more again, then looked revolted, then blushed a pink tinge into the pale apples of his cheeks, and finally settled into his usual color. Hermione in comparison blushed straight away, then paled, then looked outraged, then blushed again, until she returned to her usual peachy color.

A/N: Hey I'm not updating for a while cuz I'm going on a cruise tomorrow in Europe! For 12 days, and I haven't even finished ch 5. So I thought I'd update this to hold everyone over. Ttyl plz review.. bye!