A/N Here I am again. I have been really busy, but luckily had a break to write this chapter. The end is coming soon- in a couple of chapters. Remember the old adage "Please read and review and nothing is mine." Also here are the name meanings I promised. Hopefully everyone we'll get the reasons for the names.

Ladon- Greek for Dragon or Dragon of Hera

Ethelinde- German for noble serpent

Ailey- Irish for light

Solita- Latin for alone

"Hey, sweetie. Are you all dressed up for the park?"

"Yes, mommy."

"Let me see."

Ginny walked from down the hall into Ailey's room and was not the least bit surprised at what she saw. Ailey had a knack for dressing oddly when going out.

"Ailey, what are you wearing?"

"Umm, clothes."

"Yes, you're wearing clothes, but not ones to wear at the park. You're going to freeze. You are wearing a tutu and a swimsuit. How is that going to work when you are on the slide or the swings?"

"But, mommy. I want to wear this." Ailey said innocently.

"Yes, well that is all fine and dandy. You can wear this when we get back home, but not outside. You don't want to get sick for your first day of preschool."

"Oh, no. I'd better go change then."

"Yeah, you should. Now remember something that covers at least part of your arms and legs."

"Okay."

Five minutes later, Ailey erupted out of her room and nearly knocked Ginny over, who was tying her shoes.

"Come on, mom, let's go. Yay!"

"Fine, Fine, here I come."

Ginny locked the door behind them, then making their way down stairs and onto the sidewalk. Ailey was happily skipping beside her as she gazed at the people walking by and cooing when she came upon a dog.

Ginny smiled, Ailey just loved animals. She knew she would love to meet some of the magical animals in the wizarding world, but Ginny had yet to tell Ailey about their special blood. She would tell her that the same day she would tell Ailey about Draco.

About ten minutes later, they came upon the entrance to the park and walked through the gates. At that second, Ailey bolted from Ginny's grasp and sped over to an empty swing next to another child. Ginny followed after Ailey and stood behind her to push the swing. As the swing'sheight increase so did Ailey's laughter. Ailey was like Ginny in this sense for both of them had always loved the swings.

Ginny could remember her father pushing her on her first swing and many more and as she grew older, Charlie and Bill would also push her. Like when riding a broomstick, she loved the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair.

She snapped out of her reveries when Ailey began to tell her to stop pushing her. Ginny slowed down the swing as Ailey jumped off to play on the play structure.

Ginny walked over to a park bench and sat down as she continued to watch Ailey. Ginny loved these times in the park because she could witness innocence at its best and let her mind wander.

Once again Ailey broke Ginny out of her happiness induced stupor when she came running over to tell her something.

"Mommy, mommy look at me on the monkey bars. I can almost get all the way across."

"Okay sweetie. I'm watching."

Ginny laughed as Ailey tried valiantly to swing from bar to bar, but only made it a quarter of the way across.

"That was very good, honey." Ginny called across the sand.

Her comment fell on deaf ears as Ailey continued on her quest across the sand and tried to overcome the obstacles in her way.

Twenty minutes later, Ginny decided it was time to get going and began looking for Ailey around the slides where she had last seen her. When she didn't see her from far away, Ginny walked over for closer inspection. When she still didn't see her, she began to panic. She walked frantically all over the playground once, twice and then a third time but still no sign of Ailey.

All of the sudden she heard Ailey's voice from behind her.

"My mommy is really pretty and nice, but she won't let me have a pet. She says not until I'm mat..matu," Ailey stumbled.

"Mature?" said a smooth voice.

"Yeah," Ailey shouted excitedly, "So no pets until I'm mature."

"Ailey?" Ginny said slowly trying not to let her panic show and not taking her eyes off Ailey.

"Yeah, mommy." she said turning around and walking towards Ginny.

"Why did you run? I was scared."

"Sorry. I saw this cute dog so I followed it and then I met this nice man who owned the dog and he let me pet it."

"Well, that is very nice. What was his name?"

"Mr. Dr..Dra..."

"Mr. Draco Malfoy." came the smooth voice again.

Ginny held her breath as she gazed up. Her heart leapt up in her throat as she saw the man she hadn't seen in 4 years.

"Ah, well, umm," Ginny stuttered not knowing what to do. She cleared her throat.

"That was very nice of you. Thank you."

Though Ginny figured that Draco was a tad shocked he didn't seem to show it. Of course Ailey was oblivious to the whole interaction as she lovingly petted the dog.

"Ailey, we better get going and not bother Mr. Malfoy any more."

"Ah, but mom, I love Scruffy. Just a little while longer." looking to Ginny, who looked to Draco

"Yeah, its fine with me." Draco said.

Ginny didn't know what do to. Part of her wanted to run away and hopefully never see Draco again, but another side wanted to stay and talk to him to understand what happened.

"Fine, but only a little while. We have to go eat remember."

"Why doesn't Mr. Malfoy come eat with us?" Ailey said slyly.

"Umm," Ginny started.

"No I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Umm, well..."

"You wouldn't be intru.. whatever, tonight is pizza place night. We go to pizza and eat it then, plus then left dogs come in; you could bring Scruffy."

"Umm, Ailey," said Ginny, "I'm sure Mr. Malfoy is busy."

"Well, actually I'm not," he said grinning at her slightly.

"Please, mom. Pretty please."

Ginny's Gryffindor courage won out.

"Fine. Would you like to come to dinner with us, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Sure."

"Yay!" Ailey squealed.

Ginny and Draco were walking slightly behind Ailey who was wrestling to walk Scruffy.

"So how is life?" Draco asked kindly.

"Fine I guess. You?"

"Fine."

They walked into the pizza parlor, ordered and sat down. Ailey polished off her food quickly and commenced playing with Scruffy on the floor.

"She's a great kid." said Draco.

"Yeah she is."

"How old is she?"

"Four."

"Are you still working with Dumbledore?"

"Yeah, doing the same stuff."

"That's good."

The silence went on for a while as they both gazed at Ailey trying to feed Scruffy a piece of pepperoni. Ginny began to lift her gaze and stared at Draco for a while. She was surprised at how handsome he was. When she was blind she obviously couldn't see even the Draco's false identity, and when her vision came back, she was too angered to study him. It seemed sort of strange to her that she fell in love with someone she never truly saw.

"Was what you said in the letter true?" Ginny asked quietly.

"Yeah, every word. I didn't mean to hurt you and like I said I'm sorry that I did."

"I know, I believe you. So what have you been doing the last four years?"

"Mainly traveling. I went all over the world, didn't find inner peace, and then came back here to get my family's affairs in order."

"I saw you at the cemetery. Why did you clean my family's graves?"

"I don't know," Draco said meekly, "I guess I felt like I needed to prove my worth to them."

"Okay and thanks."

"You're welcome."

"When did your parents die?"

"Two years into my hiding in America. A lot of people didn't hear about because nobody felt the need to publish my father's death as if he were a hero. They both died because of Voldemort. My mother, because my father killed her as a testament to his loyalty and father because Voldemort just got tried of him."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah me too."

"So are you married." asked Draco.

"No, You?"

"Nope. So then, Ailey is adopted?"

"No, she's mine."

"Then who's her father? Wait sorry, I'm being too nosy."

Ginny took a deep breath.

"No, its fine. Draco, her father is you."

"What?" Draco said in quiet astonishment not wanting to alarm anyone.

"Yeah, its you. I know it's sort of weird because she looks nothing like the two of us, but I'm positive she's yours. Sorry if this is too much to bear."

"No it's fine. I have always wanted to be a father. I'm just sorry I didn't know sooner."

"Yeah, me too. I shouldn't have overreacted but seeing you when my vision came back was a bit of a shock."

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

"Does she know about anything?" Draco said nodding towards Ailey.

"No, I have been waiting for right moment. I have a box of items pertaining to you that I was going to show you when the time arose. When that happened I was going to tell her about Hogwarts. I was sort of waiting either for her to start wondering or until her letter came, which ever came first."

"Mommy, look at me and Scruffy." Ailey interrupted.

"That's great sweetie. We better get going soon honey, preschool starts tomorrow."

"I know. Mr. Malfoy, when can I see Scruffy again?"

"I don't know Ailey. Why don't you ask your mommy?"

"Okay, when, mommy."

"Umm, let me talk to Mr. Malfoy a minute."

"Okay."

"So what do you think?" Ginny said in hushed tones.

"Whenever is fine by me. I want to see her more so she gets hopefully used to me."

"Yeah, me too. How about Tuesday? I'm living in the same apartment. We can maybe go on a walk with her and Scruffy."

"Okay, sounds fine by me."

"Ailey, honey, we are going to see Mr. Malfoy and Scruffy on Tuesday, okay? Now say 'goodbye'"

"Yay! See you Tuesday." kissing Scruffy and hugging Draco's legs.

"Bye, Ailey. Bye, Ginny."

As Ginny turned around at the door she smiled and said,

"Bye. Thanks. I had fun."

"Me, too"

Like it? This was a very long chapter. It's 6.5 pages. Hope everything is up to your satisfaction. If not give me a review. See you possibly next week.