Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any related indicia. I am merely borrowing the material and adding my own plot.

Summary: Lucius Malfoy comes to Hogwarts to speak with Hermione. Will love rekindle or will Malfoy senior be sent packing?

A/N: Man I suck! I again apologize for taking so long and this chapter is dedicated to Ice because, well... they know why I think. I hope this chapter is calmer than the last but I am not making any promises.

It was three days since Severus' revelation and he still didn't know what to do. Confusion was the word of the week and he didn't think it would ever get better. Severus had a talk with Draco Malfoy to see if he could find out anything else about Hermione's "issue" but all he found was that Malfoy senior left Hermione when she became pregnant and he wasn't prepared to leave Narcissa. But what Harry wanted to know was how Draco found out!

-Flashback-

"Draco?" Harry asked one night when their routines were back to normal. Draco and Harry still didn't open their friendship to the school because heaven forbid that a Gryffindor befriends a Slytherin and most of them (especially the gossips) would believe there was something more going on between them. But no one even knows the answer to that question...well they do but they won't be willing to share.

"What is it Harry?" Draco looked at Harry and fixed him with his warm gray eyes. Harry blushed and looked away. He didn't want to upset Draco for asking the question but he had to know.

"Um..." Harry started trying to be casual. "How did you find about your father and Hermione?" He failed. Draco looked at him with a small pout.

"I, err... well..." Draco stammered. He averted his gaze to the floor and his cheeks slightly tinged.

"What?" Harry looked at him but when Draco wouldn't answer, Harry sighed. "Fine be that way!" Harry hmphed and walked to the corner. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Draco smiling somewhat awkwardly.

"I walked into them one day..." Harry gasped, knowing that would be a horrible thing to see; his father and a muggle-born!

"I'm sorry Draco." Harry hugged the taller boy and they chatted quietly for another hour or so before they departed to their separate dormitories.

-End Flashback -

After Harry found out this information he slept on it for a day or two then he decided he needed to tell someone...other than Hermione, because she would be offended, and Ron, because he would just be pissed, so he talked to Ginny.

She was sitting in a corner of the common room chatting to her boyfriend Dean Thomas when Harry walked in.

"Hey Dean! Ginny, can I talk to you?" Ginny nodded and kissed Dean quickly before walking over to the other corner of the common room.

"What's up Harry?" she asked casually. He looked at her and was truly reminded of everything Ron was and wasn't: the red hair, the outgoingness, but then she had a sharp tongue and wit to match. Harry laughed slightly just thinking about her and how she had a crush on him and then smiled knowing that she found someone for her. He was jolted out of his thoughts with a tapping on his shoulder.

"Harry, can you hear me?" Harry blinked.

"Sorry...just thinking." He then proceeded to tell her everything: How Lucius left her when she became with child, how Draco held this secret for years, how it was tearing everyone up inside. But then there was something on Ginny's mind.

"Why though?" Harry shrugged.

"I don't know...some things happen. She couldn't not get pregnant." Ginny shook her head impatiently.

"No! I mean why did they get together in the first place? It seems like there is a Slytherin to Gryffindor attraction going on! First Malfoy and Hermione and you and Draco..."

"What?!" Harry's eyes widened in shock.

"Well, you know...aren't you and Draco...?" She smiled and looked Harry in the eye to see him blush. "You are!"

"No Ginny, we aren't..." She eyed him skeptically and decided to drop it...for now.

"Fine. But what about him and Hermione?" Harry shook his head.

"I just don't know!"

"I do! And Malfoy is dead!!" It was a red-faced, red-haired, Ron Weasley standing next to Harry. And he looked mad.

Ginny jumped back in shock. She didn't even know Ron was there. By the look on Harry's face, either did he.

"What's wrong mate?!" Harry asked, nervous about his friend.

"That prat Malfoy came here!" Everyone gasped. "Yeah, and he kicked me out of the visiting room and shut the door so he could speak with 'Mione! I think he wants the baby!!"

"Ron, that is ridiculous! Malfoy left Hermione so he didn't have to take care of the baby," Ginny argued.

"Yeah?" Ron said. He then threw a paper down on the floor where Harry picked it up and read aloud...

"'Lucius Malfoy, ex-Death Eater and owner of a wealthy mansion outside of Hogsmeade, openly declared his support for the minister of magic' well that's odd."

"Keep reading!" Ron urged.

"...'And he also declared that he is leaving his wife, Narcissa Malfoy in order to marry Hermione Granger'...that must be wrong!" Ron shook his head and looked sadly to the floor.

"H-he came into the hospital wing carrying a stack of these..." Ron shook the daily prophet. "...and then gave one to me, Snape, Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore...I think he is serious...mad crazy, but serious."

"B-But why?" Ginny looked at her older brother who just shook his head and replied, "I don't know Gin."

-#-

Ron was gone. No one knew where he went but they just let him go. Hermione was supposed to be with him. Everyone thought it was destiny! But instead she was in love with Snape and pregnant by Lucius Malfoy. It was a mess. Ginny was sitting, talking animatedly with Dean and Harry was pacing. Finally at one o'clock in the morning he stopped and declared to the room that he "needs to leave". He walked out of the common room door and to the dungeons, not looking for Draco as he usually would do, but for Snape.

-#-

"Bloody Malfoy handed me this dratted paper!" Snape was cursing in his office study, throwing glares at everything that seemed to be around. The portraits abandoned his room so he was now alone swearing at the papers that he was grading. Sorry for the students who would be victim of his anger.

Then he heard a knock on his door.

"Great! Can't even get a moments peace!" He walked over to the door and it burst open with an unexpected jolt of magic. Severus groaned.

"Potter."

"Professor." They exchanged glances.

"Potter?" Snape glared his eyes cold and full of malice.

"Yes professor?" Harry didn't even blink.

"Oh come in!" Snape groaned at ineffectively scaring the Gryffindor away and let Harry sit in his office.

Harry looked around remembering the office from his Occlumency lessons. Jars were still on the shelves filled with disgusting creatures that he didn't care to learn about. Severus followed his gaze.

"I really should get someone jellied flobberworm." Harry shuddered and Severus smirked. Now things were normal.

"Now Potter, what is it?" he asked with a tone in his voice that stated he really didn't give a damn.

"You heard about Hermione?" Severus relaxed considerably at Harry's words and he nodded his head sadly, letting his emotions for once come to the surface.

"Yes," he said his voice barely above a whisper.

"What are you going to do?" Severus thought about it and he realized that there was nothing he could do. He laughed bitterly at this thought and came back to his old self.

"That, Potter, is none of your business! Now get out of my bloody office!!" Harry recoiled at the sudden change of tone and exited the office immediately leaving a sorrowful Potions Master sitting in his chair doing the most unexpected thing that he could do: Severus Snape was giving up and a solitaire tear ran down his face.

-#-

"Hermione, love, please listen to me..." Lucius said, trying to get Hermione to listen to him.

"Fuck you." Her tone was cold and she gave no remorse or forgiveness. He walked over to her and lifted her face slightly. She frowned and gave him a look that could kill.

"Please," he begged, trying to catch her attention. She looked over his shoulder and muttered.

"There is nothing to say anymore...Malfoy." He lashed back at her.

"Fine! Stupid mudblood..." She looked at him and tears were in her eyes. Automatically he felt horrible.

"Get out!" He walked to the door defeated and before he reached the handle, he turned around.

"I just want you to know I still love you..." He opened the door and stepped out only to hear "Wait!" before smiling slightly, walking back in the room and shutting the door.