Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot on this fanfic and a couple or more characters you certainly won't find in the HP books so when I say anything I mean anything! Heck, I don't even own this computer! I'm just renting it until I get my own. So please bear with me if my updates are slow?
Spoilers: You'll know 'em when you see 'em! ov!!!
Author's Note: Enjoy!!!
Chapter One: Lesser Of Three Evils
"No!" Hermione shouted. She stared at the Aurors around her with a look of desperation as she clutched a bundle of what seemed like white cloth to her chest. Only the cloth moved and made little gurgling noises. "I'm not letting you take my baby!"
One of them, Kingsley Shacklebolt, sighed quietly but his deep, calm voice told her that he was determined to do his task. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but we have to take that child. This is by the order of the Ministry of Magic—"
"But this is my baby!" Hermione cried out, backing further into the walls as though, hoping it would absorb her into it's cold depths. "She's done nothing wrong! She's innocent!"
"Your daughter is the heir of a Death Eater, ma'm. We can't let anything of that lot run loose." Another Auror by the name of Dawlish replied coldly. "We're not taking any chances that she may grow up and raise the Dark Lord again the way her father and his companions had done so. Not when Harry Potter has finally defeated him."
"But she's just a baby… Just a small baby… It's not her fault that she was born into this family. You can't hurt a baby! It's not right… It can't be right!" Hermione looked up tearfully at a violet haired young witch at Kingsley's back, her lips trembling and her eyes almost as wet as hers. "Tonks… Please tell them this can't be right. I'm begging you please don't take my baby away…"
Tonks looked away with tears in her eyes but managed a hoarse reply. "I'm sorry, Hermione…"
"No!" Hermione groaned and bent over her baby. She curled into a tight ball as the quiet child patted her wet cheek as though comforting her.
Kingsley's voice sounded off the walls of the ornate room once more. "Please don't make this any harder for either of us… Mrs. Malfoy."
Hermione began to sob at the name. Finally, after three years of being an alumni, the war was over. As she had expected and hoped, her best friend, Harry Potter had defeated the feared Dark Lord. It was a day of both joy and grief to her. For that day also claimed her husband, Draco Malfoy.
It came as a shock to everyone, especially Harry and Ron, that two years after graduating from Hogwarts, she ended up marrying the most notorious Muggle born hater and bully of them all. They were only pacified when she explained that it was something she couldn't help. Something she and Draco couldn't help.
They've fallen in love…
She tried to get away at first. In sixth and seventh year she had clear excuses and so did Draco. She had studies to distract her while he had students to bully. After school, they were separated by their allegiances. But, one night before his and Pansy Parkinson's engagement ball, Draco Apparated in her one room apartment, half drunk and begged for a kiss from her.
He said he wanted a kiss, just enough to keep him sane all through the remaining days of his life. He wanted a real kiss from her that he can save before the days came when he would have to kill all emotion, all sanity to become a Death Eater just as his father and tradition wanted him to do. She obliged him. It was inevitable for her gentle heart…
But a kiss was never enough. It turned into a touch, a plea, until they had to come together. They then understood that they needed each other. Draco never let her go after that no matter how much she protested. He married her and made a deal with his father that he will become the most loyal servant of the Dark Lord if she was accepted into the family. Lucius Malfoy would have killed them if the Dark Lord did not intervene. He said the Mudblood best friend of Harry Potter and the thought of an heir with Draco's blood and her intelligence would be a great asset to his army. She tried to protest but she then realized that Voldemort knew then and there that she was already pregnant. A fact she wasn't even aware of until then!
She was forced to agree. It was the only way she can keep Draco and her unborn child alive. But she never pledged them her allegiance. In fact, Hermione was one of the key people who directed Voldemort's downfall. As usual, no one really knew that the whole idea of how to defeat Voldemort came from her. So now she had to pay the price…
With resolution in her every movement, she slowly picked herself up from the floor with her wand clutched in her right hand, her baby in the left. She stared at the Aurors around her coldly. "You'll have to kill me before I give you my baby. I know you're planning to give her to the dementors so she can receive the Kiss, like the others. It would be better for me to die now, fighting for her rather than watch her turn into a creature of filth."
Dawlish curled his lip in disgust and aimed his wand swiftly at her while calling, "Accio Baby!"
But Hermione was just as quick. "Protego!"
She felt her baby slipping through her arms but the Protection Charm stopped this. Hermione straightened. She didn't graduate at Hogwarts with flying colors for nothing. Before any of them could utter another spell, she quickly followed this with another chant. "Expelliarmus!"
All the wands in sight flew in different directions. As the Aurors were struggling to retrieve them, Hermione screamed, "ACCIO WANDS!"
All the expelled wands flew to her right hand leaving the Aurors around her defenceless. She stared at them coldly. "Get out of my house!"
All of the Aurors gaped at her. They've never heard of a single witch disarming a group of highly trained Aurors before. Murdered, maybe, but not disarmed. And she wasn't even using Dark Magic! Their gaping was interrupted by a familiar voice from the door behind them.
"Hermione?" the voice was followed by it's owner. The boy (now a man) who defeated the Dark Lord. Now the man who have gained the respect of everyone in the wizarding world. None other than Harry Potter. "Hermione, put down the wands."
Hermione gave him a glimpse of the terror and desperation she was feeling. "Harry… they want to take my baby… I can't let them… I won't let them…"
"I know, Hermione," Harry sighed and came near her. "I'm here to take you both away. Professor Dumbledore settled it all out. He's with the Minister of Magic right now and he sent me to fetch you. He wants to talk to you."
Hermione, still trembling and half crazy with anxiety and fear, looked at him warily. He was, after all, one of the best Aurors in the Ministry now. "What do you mean?"
Harry's eyebrows lowered and he met her chocolate brown eyes with anger. "Are you telling me that you don't trust me?! You know I'd never do anything that would harm you or anything that you value! Even if it is Malfoy's daughter!"
Hermione failed to catch the bitterness in his voice. She was just too busy trying to drag down the shields she forced around her heart. She was ready to die for her daughter! She dropped the wands to the floor and blindly reached for Harry. In his warm, secure arms she felt safe again. The first time since Draco died and left her only weeks ago. "I'm sorry…"
Harry embraced her. She didn't notice the way his arms trembled around her or the way his lips gently brushed over her head. Neither did she see the longing in his bright green eyes before he closed them lightly and prepared to Apparate. "It's okay," he whispered to her. "Everything is going to be fine now…"
With a loud CRACK!, he Disaparrated with her in his arms to the astonishment and relief of the forgotten Aurors…..
Harry's heart broke as he held Hermione tightly in his arms as they Apparated directly to the office doors of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. This must be how his mother looked when she stood before Voldemort, trying to protect him when he was just a toddler. It was plain for everyone to see that Hermione was going to die for the child if she had to. The thought angered him and touched him just the same. The reason behind it…?
No. It would be better left unspoken…
Still keeping an arm thickened by three years worth of training as an Auror around Hermione as she leaned into him while holding onto her baby, they entered the elegantly varnished doors into a much more elegant office. He felt her tremble at the sight of Fudge but she calmed down when Dumbledore, sitting on a throne like chair near the fireplace, smiled at her. He could understand her feelings. Dumbledore always presented a calming figure for anyone he wants to help.
"Ah, Mrs. Malfoy. It has been a while, is it not?" Dumbledore greeted Hermione cheerfully.
Harry felt a twist of bitterness in his stomach at the name but hid it well. Hermione, on the other hand, smiled at the old headmaster shakily. "Yes, Professor, it has." She bit her lip before continuing. "H-how are you?"
"Fine, fine, just superb, actually!" Dumbledore replied with his usual aplomb. Harry felt Hermione's body relax at the sight of this. "Please sit down, Mrs. Malfoy, and have some tea. I'm sure you've been in quite an ordeal. You look about ready to collapse! Harry, please stay and join us."
Harry led her to a chair right across from Dumbledore and Hermione sank gratefully in it. He then walked around the chair to stand behind Hermione, his hand on her shoulder to make her feel his support without any words between them. She expressed her silent thanks by covering his hand with hers. He suffered the pleasant burning sensation of her touch in silence.
"I assume that Mr. Potter has already told you of the reason why we wished to speak with you?" Cornelius Fudge asked her. His face was noticeably quite the opposite of Dumbledore's. He looked at the baby in her arms in a rather disgusted way.
Hermione eyed him coldly and closed her arms tightly over her daughter as though her embrace would shield her from the man's unsolicitous stare. "He told me that you have found a compromise for my daughter." She stated coldly.
Dumbledore nodded. "That is correct, Mrs. Malfoy. The Wizengamot has held up a meeting at my request in order to discuss the future of young… I'm sorry, I didn't get your daughter's name."
Hermione forced a smile. Her eyes softened when she glanced at her child. "Her name is Vera. Vera Laila Malfoy."
"A beautiful name for a beautiful child." Dumbledore nodded. "One who deserves to know what living is like, don't you agree?"
Hermione's eyes darkened in sadness. "Yes." She looked directly at Dumbledore. "Yes, she deserves to live. Although I can understand your fears I won't let anyone harm my daughter. I'll die for her if I have to!"
"It has been very plain that you will risk everything for your child, Mrs. Malfoy. Your encounter with the Aurors have travelled fast and well here in the Ministry." Dumbledore chuckled as though sharing a joke. "Looks like we have taught you too well at school."
Hermione blushed but she couldn't look smug. Normally she would at the compliment but her night just didn't agree with her. "Please... tell me why you called me here."
Dumbledore nodded, still smiling. "Very well, Mrs. Malfoy. Due to eye witness accounts from Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley as well as the innermost members of the Order of the Phoenix about your efforts in bringing Voldemort down at risk of your own life, we are awarding you your daughter's life and a chance to live in peace, in exchange for one condition."
Hermione sat straight at the edge of her chair and eagerly listened to what the headmaster was about to say. "I'll do anything! ANYTHING!"
Fudge cleared his throat so that the attention was drawn to him. "We have reason to believe that your child, being a spawn of evil, may also grow up corrupted but since we must let her live, we agreed that she may still hold some hope with the proper guidance—"
"Are you trying to say that I can't be a good mother?!" Hermione asked him angrily.
"No, my dear, we mean nothing like that. We know that you are a good mother but the wizarding world needs reassurance that the Wizard Wars will not be repeated again. That is why we have agreed that you can keep the baby only if you agree to marry a person of unquestionable character. To help you raise your daughter." Dumbledore pacified her.
Hermione was immediately apprehensive. Marriage?! But then again if she looked at things logically, Dumbledore had a point. The wizarding world shall remain restless until they are assured of their future safety. The knowledge that a Death Eater's heir have survived the purge the Ministry had arranged will not help in that unrest. It was either living forever running from the Ministry, watching her daughter get killed or worse, or marrying a person of unquestionable character and having the chance to raise her daughter in peace.
Right now, the last seemed to be the lesser of three evils and the only option acceptable. She looked up at Dumbledore with resolution in her eyes. She said she'd do anything. She meant it. "Who am I supposed to marry then?"
Dumbledore and Fudge exchanged a look before Fudge answered her question. "We were thinking about Mr. Harry Potter here."
Hermione gaped at them in shock for a full five minutes. She couldn't believe it. Then she turned to a frozen Harry and snarled, "Were you in on this?!"
"No, Mrs. Malfoy, Harry did not know anything about these arrangements. Actually, that was the reason why we wanted him to stay while we spoke with you. We wanted to ask him if he was willing to shoulder the responsibility of raising another man's child and marrying a dead man's wife." Dumbledore said quietly before Harry could protest.
Hermione remained sitting on her chair while clutching her baby tightly in her arms, thoroughly shocked. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine she'd ever get to marry the famous Harry Potter. There was nothing wrong about that but she just… never thought of him that way. He was her best friend apart from Ron. She risked her life and bled for this man when they were still in school and after that! But never has she ever imagined herself tying the knot with him! She seriously thought he was going to marry Ginny what with all of Ron's shrewd insinuations and matchmaking!
A little later, she found her voice. "You're joking, right?"
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled but he shook his head gravely. "I'm afraid we are deathly serious about all of this, Miss Gra— I'm sorry— Mrs. Malfoy. It is the only way we can help you save your baby from the public ridicule she will be subjected to if you ever do escape from the Ministry of Magic.
"As Harry has defeated Voldemort, he is trusted by the public. Under his guardianship, there will be no question as to what little Vera here will turn out to be. Instead of fear, she shall be revered. Instead of hatred, she will be loved. As will your other future children, of course."
"Of course." Hermione echoed weakly. Children. She and Harry… Merciful Merlin, what next?
Fudge curled his lip back slightly and kept looking at the baby in Hermione's arms as though waiting for it to grow horns or something. "It would be the safest way also. For all of us."
Dumbledore glanced at Fudge over his half moon glasses throwing him a look of warning. He didn't want to add anything more to Hermione's anguish at the moment. It was Fudge's pompous shoot to kill order that got her into this near unstable state in the first place, almost losing the Ministry some important Aurors and the Order, some valued members. Fudge immediately quieted down, flustered, but his hostile looks towards the child did not lessen. If looks could burn, baby Vera would have been a pile of cinders by now.
Hermione hugged her baby closer as though protecting it from the open hostility the older man was plainly exhibiting. She bowed her head and struggled to hold the tears at bay. She was getting better at it. "Can't I… Can't I be trusted by the public to raise my own child alone? I don't want to be a burden to Harry. He has his own life. His own dreams! I can't take that away from him! He deserves to be happy." She whispered hoarsely as guilt and remorse flooded her soul for the friend who seemed to have to shoulder all the woes of the world.
Dumbledore nodded and stole a glance at Harry whose eyes were now hidden behind the spectacles he had worn forever before he answered Hermione. "I'm afraid the public has learned not to be so trusting anymore. After all the deaths Voldemort caused and the way he almost won, I'm afraid the public will not be so forgiving either."
Hermione looked at Harry's downcast face and felt her heart breaking. Now that Voldemort's gone, Harry finally had a chance at happiness. He can finally choose where he will stay, what he will do… To be finally free from the shadow of the man who made his life miserable all these sad, long years. Could she take it all away from him?
No…
"No." Hermione whispered quietly as her eyes stared at the floor.
"I beg your pardon?" Fudge asked from behind his desk. His eyes fixing Hermione with a blank stare as though not quite believing what he just heard.
Dumbledore just stared at her intently and Harry remained quiet.
Hermione stood, exhibiting an unconscious grace even though she was holding a child in her arms. She walked over to one of the wide windows of the office and looked out onto the grounds of the Ministry. Her face was set, her mind made up. She will not let Harry suffer. He's had enough.
"I said no." she repeated more clearly now. "And if I have to fight the Ministry all the way, I will, to protect my child. But I am not marrying Harry and dragging him into my problems." She turned viciously around back then and hissed at Fudge angrily. "What is it with you?! Do you think Harry's just some sort of pawn to be used as you want him to? Do any of you even care that he wants to be happy too?! Wasn't it enough that he's risked his life for this world more than once?! What more do you want from him?!"
"Now see here—" but Fudge was cut off by a gesture from Dumbledore's hand.
"I think," he began to speak seriously this time. "That the best person to decide on that particular argument would be Harry."
Fudge turned his eyes on Harry Potter and it was plain on his face that he was hoping that the man in front of him would agree with his friend. "Well, Harry? Will you marry her?"
Harry, his eyes still hidden behind his glasses, slowly raised his head and looked at Fudge straight in the eye for a full straight minute until the Minister of Magic was fidgeting uncomfortably in his chair, before speaking in a clear, cold, resolute voice.
"Yes."
"Yes," Harry repeated, gaining resolution. "I'll marry her. I will act as guardian to the child."
Everyone in the room, except for Dumbledore, stared at him in shock. He then turned around and stared at Hermione, meeting her eyes and letting her see his resolve. He knew how she was going to take this. And by Hermione's standards, he knew she was going to take this badly!
It took her a full minute to respond. Planting her legs and returning his stare head on. "No." she said quietly.
"Hermione—"
"I said NO!" she shouted at him and he saw the anguish and the determined courage there, mingled with despair. "You're doing it again, Harry! Saving the world like you owe it something! Risking your life and throwing it away like it means nothing to you! Do you even understand the implications of this situation?! Instead of being forced to marry me, you can go court Ginny or any other girl you wanted so you can be happy! No. I am not letting you squander your life away on me. I'm not worth it!"
"Of course you're worth it!" Harry snapped at her. His eyes spitting green fire. "You're worth a lot more than you think, damn it! If it weren't for you we wouldn't have defeated Voldemort (Fudge flinched violently). You kept me going, Hermione, and I owe you more than I can ever repay from the moment you became my friend. I am not letting you down now."
Hermione looked at him helplessly and he could see she was close to tears. He wanted so much to hold her. To wrap her in his arms and assure her everything was going to be fine. But he couldn't. Therein lay pain and he didn't think he can bear that. At least not now.
Hermione stared at him with pained eyes. "What about your life? What about your hopes, your dreams?!"
"You're my friend. That's enough reason for me." He replied calmly.
"Harry…" Hermione croaked after a while. She was holding onto her child with trembling hands. "…I don't even love you like that…"
Harry tried to swallow the thick lump that popped in his throat as those words speared his gut like a particularly violent hex. He waited until it disappeared before he dared to speak again. "It doesn't matter."
"Of course it matters!" Hermione cried. "It matters because I love you enough to make it matter for you!"
"Then marry me, Hermione." He said quietly. Seriously. "Marry me and make it matter more."
Hermione shook her head. "You're out of your mind…"
Harry managed to smile. "You know me. Stupid, chivalrous Harry."
Hermione pursed her lips at him. "Don't do this."
Harry's face darkened just like it did when he faced Voldemort for the final time. The resolution was there and it was clear to anyone present that he will do anything for Hermione to agree.
"Hermione, if you don't marry me, Vera will die. Do you want that? Can you stand that?"
"I've stood in front of things that were much, much more difficult, thank you very much." She sniped.
Harry laid down his trump card. "Would Draco want that?"
As he expected, Hermione's eyes wavered, along with her will. She always did have the most expressive eyes. Even though he couldn't explain what they were trying to express most of the time.
Hermione…
She's always been a complete mystery to him and he didn't even notice until it was too late. How many days has he regretted his error of not knowing that, the only person who can drive out the despair in his heart would be under his nose all this time?
Draco was right. He was a fool. And he let her slip away. But that didn't mean he didn't have illusions. And now… Now, if only in name… she could be his…
Hermione, her eyes brimming with tears, looked up at him. Her lips were trembling and white and he could see that she was weighing her choices.
Her baby… or her best friend…?
Finally, she spoke in a voice hardly above a whisper. Her lips and voice trembling along the way and her tears falling sorrowfully down her cheeks onto her baby's chin as she answered.
"Alright, Harry… You win…"