Chapter Forty-four

Araminta closed the door behind Harry and then sank down onto her four-poster bed. Why had Pansy been crying? Who was the child she and the unseen person had been talking about? What was the danger?

There were so many things to think about--her family and its future, Quidditch and the Quidditch Ball, her new relationship with Harry, her place in the space-time continuum...really, it was a wonder she hadn't exploded from all the pressure like a balloon that had too much helium in it.

Araminta was really, really sleepy but she decided to get to work on the Love Potion to use on her parents instead. She set out her cauldron and lit some candles to create a spooky atmosphere. However, she found herself staring into the brilliant flames and she had to blow them out when she realized that they were a distraction and a fire hazard. They left a pleasant vanilla scent in the air.

*flashback*

"Come here, darling." A huge woman with bushy hair picked Araminta up and held her close. "Sweetheart, how Mommy has missed you. It's for the best that I let your daddies raise you, so that you are not confused by too many parents."

The woman smelled like vanilla.

*end flashback*

Araminta almost dropped her cauldron on her foot. Where had that memory come from? She'd never thought about her mom before. She'd never even wondered about her. After all, both witches and wizards could bear children; it just happened that women weren't such big wusses about it so they got pregnant more often.

Did this mean that Hermione had really loved her after all and hadn't wanted to leave her? It still seemed strange to Araminta that Hermione was her mom, but it was starting to make more sense with each passing hour. Araminta was a combination of Hermione and Draco, not Harry and Draco.

Even though Araminta would get to keep Harry as a soulmate, she still felt kind of sad. She'd miss crawling into bed with her dads on stormy nights if she was born to a loving Draco and Hermione. She'd never get to snuggle between them, pretending to be scared and knowing that they saw right through her, until the shafts of lightning and bursts of

thunder stopped coming from the sky.

She shook her head and put her cauldron away. She probably shouldn't work on a Love Potion when she was distracted like this. The last thing she needed was to have something else go wrong.