Draco sat in the big leather chair in his personal library, rubbing his face. Hermione had tricked him. She'd waited until he was drunk and taken advantage of the situation. Now he was stuck with the outcome and he had no idea what to do with it. Ralph was up in his new sister's nursery cooing over the baby Lisana, Lisa for short.
Hermione was poking about the house, the Malfoy Townhouse, his London residence. An inner debate raged inside on whether or not to acknowledge this baby, accept her into the fold. Leaving the room, he went to find Ralph and saw his young son's joyous expression as he played with the two-week-old baby. Sighing, he made his decision and left the room.
"Granger." Hermione looked up from the text that rested on the table before her.
"Yes, Draco?" she asked, her expression demure.
He looked at her, his face covered in a mask of steel. Inside, however, his thoughts were swirling around, as if caught in a hurricane.
'Does she just think I'm going to take her back?' he thought. 'Just like that? "Draco, I'm having your baby" doesn't always entail me taking the person in question back. Well, she's up for a trip.'
"Granger, here," he said, pushing a check towards her roughly.
Hermione's eyes widened when she saw the sum written on the paper. "What is this?" she asked, her eyes instantly narrowing.
"Is that too little?" Draco asked, pulling the checkbook out of his back pocket. "Because if it is, I'm prepared to offer a much larger sum-"
"No, I mean what is this money for?" Hermione asked, angrier this time. "Are you trying to buy me?"
"No," Draco said smoothly. "I'm buying Lisana. How much more do you want, Granger? Two million, perhaps? Mayhap even three?" He let out a short, stunted laugh. "I'm prepared to go much farther than that, Granger. Surely you know that."
"You want to buy my baby?" she hissed. "You- You pig! You're an absolute bastard!"
"That I may be," he conceded, "but Raphael seems to love his new sister and I have no intention of letting her be parted from him. She's staying here, whether or not you take my money." He sat down, crossing his legs in a gentlemen-like manner. "So. The question remains, dear Granger: what do you want?"
Hermione then did something he did not anticipate. She started to cry. "All- All I ever wanted was for you to love me," she sobbed.
While her outburst of feeling affected him, he refused to allow it to show. Without his mask slipping, he replied, "I did, once, as you know. Now I just want the children to be happy. As Raphael has clearly related, he was not happy with you. One can then surmise that neither will Lisana. I would hate to wrench the baby from you in a rude and rough manner and shove you into the street, so I will allow you to say goodbye to her. Fifteen minutes, and then I expect you to leave."
"Forever?" she asked her voice barely above a whisper.
"I cannot deny my children their mother forever, so no, not for forever," he conceded. "But once they are old enough and have a desire to meet you, perhaps if it is best I shall allow it. Until then you may only write. And please, only once a month."
Hermione gathered herself up and started walking to the nursery with Draco following closely behind her. As she kissed her two children, she said her goodbyes and then walked out of the townhouse with a check for a million Galleons stashed away in her purse.
Draco watched her walk away until she Disapparated halfway down the block. He then turned back to his children and Ralph's cry that Lisa had just wiggled her fingers.
But he couldn't help thinking it had been too easy. He couldn't help but think he had been tricked.
