Chapter Twenty Five

A Year Later

Hermione watched Blair kiss her daughter, Kayla Jade Potter. Harry, Jessie, and Ron sat around Blair's dining room table and played cards. Blair had Kayla in August, right after her and Harry got married, and bought a house together. It was the right thing to do, and they were so in love with each other.

Jessie stayed with Ron at the burrow because she loved his mom more then him. And usually if they weren't at the borrow they were at Blair's or traveling the world together.

Hermione sighed as she looked at the time. She stood up and gave a fake grin to everyone. "I have a meeting in the states."

"But Benjamin's not even here yet." Blair said.

"You can't go by yourself." Jessie stated, due to the fact that it was highly dangerous to go while pregnant.

"He's ten minutes late. I'm not gonna get fired because he had business in other places." Hermione said, gathering her stuff. Her friends seemed to feel guilt welling up every time she left. Partly because they never really paid much attention to her. The other half was because she was never really ever happy after she found out that Blair was having Draco's baby.

After that incident, Draco never talked to anyone ever again and Hermione lived back in the Gryffindor tower (Dumbledore's orders). Benjamin ended up giving the spot to her only because he fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. She obviously said yes and was all of the sudden pregnant with his kid…but only about 3 weeks pregnant.

"Come on, Hermione. Your not gonna get fired." Ron started. "Relax a little bit, your pregnant." Hermione glared at him.

"I'm back." Benjamin said. Hermione looked back and huffed.

"And your ten minutes late. Come on, I'm already late." She whined. Benjamin rolled his eyes, told everyone goodbye, grabbed plastic container from the counter and walked outside with Hermione. They held onto the plastic container and felt an extreme rush when they finally started going.

"I've been thinking," She began. "What should we name this baby?" Benjamin stared at her like there was something smelly in the air.

"Isn't it a little early to be thinking about that? I mean, your only three weeks pregnant."

"We should probably get it done; I mean we do have a lot to go through. Plus there's work and the wedding stuff and there's like no furniture in our house."

"I see, well it's your call. You're the one who has to go through the labor."

"Thanks, Ben." She said flashing a grin.

"Anytime," He smiled at her.

"What about Leah?" she asked.

"My cousin's name is Leah, she's in a Mental Hospital, remember?" He said.

She shook her head and said, "Oh yeah. Well what about Cara?"

"My sister's name is Carrie, and have you thought about boy names? It could be a boy?"

"Chances are it'll be a girl. I did my research. But if it's a boy, what about Alexander or Adam."

"I like Alexander; it fits better with the last name."

"Me too, but what about for a girl-"

"Leya!" Benjamin said, interrupting her.

"That's like Leah though."

"So, it's better and it reminds me of Star Wars." Benjamin said with a smile from ear to ear. Hermione laughed at him.

"Okay, Leya it is then." Hermione said as they finally arrived in Detroit, Michigan. Hermione grabbed Benjamin's hand as they walked through the Ministry of Michigan. He kissed her on the cheek and they walked up a stair case. With her free hand she flipped her freshly cut hair the reached the back of her shoulders. She then felt a hand that grabbed hers. She whipped around, letting go of Benjamin's clutch and saw no one. She swallowed hard and looked at Benjamin.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," she grinned to let him know that everything was alright.

§¤§

"Well why shouldn't the schools be able to go outside of their…well…school? Most students are there all year long except the Quidditch players and the 7th years." Hermione explained. "They should get out more; go explore what the rest of the magical world has to offer them. I mean, unless I was one of the thickest students in my criteria I wouldn't even be in the states, I wouldn't have known of all the great opportunities here. But there are also other opportunities in South America or Asia. None of these students will know unless they really get out there and explore what the world has to offer for them. Unless they have great minds or do some research, but research doesn't give you the full experience."

The group of old men nodded and some even applauded. "I think it's a great idea Ms. Granger. All in favor of the Minister's idea please raise their hand." Malcolm Curtis from Washington said. Every man raised their hand and Hermione smiled. She looked over at Benjamin who was grinning at her.

After the meeting Hermione clung onto Benjamin for dear life, afraid that a hand was going to reach out and choke her to death. They walked to the café for a scone and Hermione sat down to rummaged through her purse for palm pilot to mark down new important dates. Benjamin came back with the scones and an orange juice to share. Hermione looked up and then past him to see a man pressed up against the glass, with a woman's arms lingering around his waist. He wouldn't look at her though, and he seemed annoyed. The woman had beach blonde hair and had a very dark tan. She looked only 17 but the man looked older than that. His hair was the color of snow as well as his skin and he was tall and muscular.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I'll be back real quick." Hermione said getting up, curious to see who this man might be, if this was the man that had grabbed her hand earlier. Benjamin nodded and Hermione walked out. She didn't look back because if this was the man that she thought it was, then he would go up to her.

"Chelsea…I can't stay any longer, I've been here for too long. I have to go back home."

"Fuck you, Drake." Hermione turned and glanced at the couple. "You said you would stay longer." The young man looked at Hermione and then she turned her head. She could hear him pushing the girl away and walking towards her.

"How's Kayla?" He whispered in her ear.

"Drake!" Chelsea yelled.

"Her mother is doing just great as well as her father. The least you could do is pay child support." Hermione spat.

"Seems she's pretty well off now that she's married to Harry Potter. I'd only pay if I could see what she looks like." Hermione stopped and turned around to face him.

"Well it looks like you have your hands full anyway…literally." Hermione glared at Chelsea who was one of the curviest girls she had ever seen. Other than her, Blair and Jessie.

"Oh shut up, you know she's just my sloppy seconds. You know I would do anything to have you back."

"Don't you even start, Draco." She said louder so that Chelsea could hear what his first name actually was.

"Start what? How can I start something if we never ended it?"

"It ended a long time ago when you got Blair pregnant."

"And if it was my choice I would have you to carry that baby." She was speechless for a second but then came to her senses.

"I'm carrying my own right now so don't you even talk about me carrying your kids." He put her hands on her face and looked into her eyes like he was going to kiss her, but never did.

"Can you promise me that you know that you're the one I picked?" She touched his hands, coming closer to the edge of falling back in love with Draco Malfoy, but didn't take another step towards it. She removed his hands from her face and looked at Chelsea.

"I cried for you Draco, and I probably would have even killed myself a few of those times, so why did it take you this long to get to me and tell me how you wanted things to be."

"Because you were with him and I didn't want to ruin it for you, you finally looked happy. But I couldn't wait any longer." He whispered to her.

"Draco, promise you won't ever come and find me again until I'm ready for this." He leaned in closer and his lips touched her ear, giving her goose bumps and making her breathing harsher.

"I promise," She covered her mouth almost ready to break down. He kissed her neck line tenderly and then let her go.

She broke away from him and walked into the café. She grabbed Benjamin's hand and her stuff. "We have to go," she said, as tears iced over her eyes.

"What's the rush, babe?"

"Nothing, can we just go. I feel sick."

§¤§

Hermione sat in her family sized house as the sun poured in. She wondered if Draco was thinking about her, but the rumor was that men didn't think about women as much as women thought about them. But Draco seemed different, he seemed like he wanted to embrace her more than ever. And she needed it. She was always working and so was Benjamin. But in a few years of working, they wouldn't have to; Hermione would be the richest witch in the world but with a daughter.

She sat the table by herself feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin; Benjamin was at work…it wasn't even really work though. He was snowboarding and he was going professional. She looked at the floor hearing the jingle of Crookshanks' collar. She moved her arms and sat up straight; Crookshanks jumped up and sat on her lap. Lately, she had thought that Crookshanks was able to read minds because whenever she was feeling down he came to her.

She blinked a few times, hearing the door open. Crookshanks jumped up and pranced to the door. She got up wondering who it was; Benjamin wasn't due home for a few hours. She stood in the arch way and tears filled her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. He shut the door and pressed his body up against hers.

"You know I can't keep a promise for anything."

"Draco, you need to leave." She told him.

"I can't, I can't leave you alone Hermione. I'm so in love with you." He placed a hand on her face like he had a few days before.

"Draco, please leave." And with ignoring her he kissed her lips so softly, so gently and then his lips lingered off to her chin and then down her neck. He could feel her tears run down in between her cheek and his forehead. He lifted his head, rubbing against her cheek to make the tears go away and continued to kiss her lips. His free hand was on wrapped around her waist, but Hermione grabbed it and placed it on her other cheek. Draco pulled away and blinked. He knew that she falling back in love but it felt so wrong to him for some reason.

She brushed his hair away from his sweaty head and then stared at him. "I need to see Blair," Hermione nodded, not wanting the bittersweet moment to end, but knowing it had to.

§¤§

Hermione stepped into Blair's home, with Draco's hand in hers. She stopped as she saw Blair and Kayla playing with toys on the living room floor. Blair looked up and her smile that was filled with love for her daughter vanished. Hermione looked over as Jessie came out from the hall with a CD. She stopped with an open mouth.

"Is that Kayla?" Tears entered Blair's eyes as he asked this. She scooped Kayla up off the ground and walked over to them.

"You don't look any different from the last time I saw you and she reminds me every day that your still here." Blair said quietly.

"What are you doing here?" Jessie asked coldly. "Why did you bring him here, Hermione?"

"Jessie, please calm down."

"How can I calm down when you've probably been fooling around with him while Benjamin's at work? Benjamin loves you Hermione, how can you just give him up for…this piece of crap?"

"I didn't give him up, Jessie and I haven't been fooling around with him. You weren't the only one who got hurt…but we all have to get over it sometime." Hermione said.

Hermione looked at Kayla as she reached out for Draco. She seemed to know who Draco was already. Hermione let Draco go and he took Kayla in his arms. Water stung his eyes.

"Her middle name is Jade, right?" He asked in a guilt filled voice. Blair nodded. "I'm in love with her," He looked at Blair and grinned. She looked around, feeling flustered all the sudden.

"Come in, as you can see it's not as Fen Shui as my quarters at Hogwarts was." It looked like the perfect place for a family and Draco didn't mind. He had never felt such warmth in a house before. Hermione smiled as he sat down with Kayla and Blair. All of them talked over everything that day (Harry was in Asia for a week) and Jessie even piped up a few times.

"Don't you wish we could all just go back in time and erase all the stupid stuff we did?" Blair asked.

"Actually, I don't regret any of it." Jessie said quietly. "Because if we hadn't done it a lot of things would have been left undiscovered. Too many things."

"Me too," Draco said. His hand reached over under the table and grabbed Hermione's hand, giving it a squeeze. Hermione pulled it away, feeling like a kid again. These were the things that Draco often did in 6th year to taunt her. They sat next to each other in Herbology and he was always touched her and then laugh at her when she was almost close to tears. But this time Hermione looked over at him and giggled. Jessie watched them, feeling childish again and smiled.

"Shouldn't you call Benjamin?" Blair asked.

"I left a note," Hermione said and once again looked at Draco, smiling.