Chapter Two
'It's OK, Hermione' she reassured herself. She hadn't felt this nervous since the sorting ceremony at Hogwarts. 'He will not recognize you. You're thirteen years older than the last time you've seen him. With artificial black hair, a dark complexion (the sun in the UAE is overwhelming), sparkling green eyes, a different sense of style, and while he's still preoccupied with his papers calmly charm your voice to perform an American Texan/Indiana accent…'
With a rist movement, and a non-verbal spell, her voice had transformed.
She took a seat opposite him, patiently waiting for him to look up.
Draco finally stopped scribling frantically on the papers, set his pen down, rubbed his eyes and took off his glasses. Hermione was too distraught to consider how interesting it was to see thirteen-year-older Malfoy wearing glasses just as Harry, the man he despised, has and always had. He finally looked up at her, frowning.
For an intense moment, Hermione thought she saw a flicker of shock in his icy-gray eyes, which shape she had being gazing at for the past thirteen years of her life. But whether he really felt it, or if it had indeed been a figment of her imagination, Hermione never found out. For Slytherins were notorious at concealing their innermost emotions.
"So, Ezabelle," he said, gazing down at her data. He put a big emphasis on her name. "I take it you've been living here for the past thirteen years, am I correct?"
"Yes," Hermione began, but added quickly "-but it's not like I haven't been here before then, why I consider this place to be my childho-"
"Yes is enough of an answer." Hermione was struck by his abrupt rudeness. "And you've never thought of returning to England for even a couple of days, am I correct?"
"Correct." She said quite coolly, hearing her American accent flow before her. "Though I did have my reasons ofcourse. Too personal."
"You have a daughter, and you're single. Would any of these reasons, have anything to do with the father, perhaps?"
Hermione felt the blood rush out of her face. 'Cool it Hermione, you're being paranoid because of your insecurities. He doesn't know. He can't prove anything… play along now, everything's peachy'.
"I do believe that this question in particular is so very personal and very irrelevent to the interview you're meant to be conducting."
Draco quirked a cynical eyebrow at her.
"Look, let me just tell you that I love England very much, and I shall most definitely pay it more attention that I have been in future." She said in a rush. "Popping there quite often shall be an established prospect, I assure you. So if we can just sign these forms and be down wit-"
"Not so fast," he drawled, his famous sneer playing about his mouth. "Why, we haven't even heard from the daughter yet!"
Now Hermione really started to panick. Celeste was just about disguised as she was Queen of England.
"There will not be a need for that, she's quite too young. And really you've barely imposed a question or two towards me…"
"I will be the one to decide that." He said quite sharply.
In a wave of a wand, the secretary was summoned.
"Call upon Ms. Celeste Camady, now."
"Effeciently, sir."
"Noo!" Hermione shrieked, standing upright.
The secretary spun around and gazed her in alarm. Hermione was torn between crying and screaming with despair. Thirteen years of sacrifice, patience and endless worrying came flushing down the drain.
"My daughter is not well!" She invented wildly, making for the door. "Do whatever you want with the passports. We must go."
But with a lazy, flick of the wand, the door slammed shut at the secretary's face, leaving Hermione hostage in the room with the man she feared above all.
"LET ME OUT THIS INSTANCE!" She bellowed, feeling a stream of tears prickle her cheeks. She turned around to the door and banged on the doors, unaware of Draco casting spells.
"Oh, come now Hermione Granger," He sneered imperiously. "The act is over. If you think that I could be fooled by your drastic change of appearance now, yet I could not with that red wig approximately fourteen years from now, you seriously need another think coming. And stop with the shouting and banging on the door! I've placed a silencing charm on the room, no one will hear you. And I've Obliviated Elena, the secretary. You're trapped Hermione. This is it, no way out."
Hermione could not believe that this was happening. All her life, she wanted to protect her daughter from people and threats like the man standing before her. A previous Death Eater. A bully. Now it seemed like he wanted to barge into her life.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she sobbed, facing him. "My name is Ezabelle, and I'm originally American. I don't know why you're refering to me as Hermione. I have a mental issue which I've passed on to my daughter, so let us go home. Please."
She knew she was blabbing, but she had to keep him distracted while she attempted aparating. No such luck.
"No, Hermione, no." He didn't care he was using her first name. He was gazing at her with hatred, anger echoing in his every word. "You're not going to go anywhere, until you explain to me why you've robbed me from all that was precious to me, lied to me, and hied from me for over a decade, without a trace."
Hermione drew up her wand. What she would do is illegal, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
She was so close to casting a memory charm, when she heard "Accio wand."
Hermione shivered as the wand slipped from her feeble grip. This was all too familiar to her… the night this man raped her, defenceless…
"I want to get back to my daughter," she commanded.
"Our daughter, Hermione. Ours." He paused before carrying on, as if coming up with an after thought. "Although I must say, she has been your daughter, selfishly, for thirteen whole blissful years. Perhaps it's time she became my daughter and mine alone. That was the whole purpose after all, when she was conceived, was it not?"
Hermione's knees gave away. She was now wailing, kneeling, on the floor, at her enemy's feet.
"Please don't steal my reason for living from me."
Draco, eyes flushing with thirteen years worth of built up frustration, raised his foot, and kicked the woman before him in the stomach with all his might.
Hermione gasped in pain. It penetrated through all her thoughts. If she would lift her shirt up now, there would be a huge red bruise, she was sure of it. Crucio would've been more merciful than this man's malicous strength… what she wouldn't give to have Harry and Ron here, like old times, rush to her side…
Draco was now staring at her, not with sympathy, but with contemptous pity. He grabbed ahold of her, she was too weak, and pushed her back on to the chair.
"That kick, or as I would prefer to call it: discipline, made me feel much better. There. Now I feel cheerful enough to be introduced to Ruby. Her actual name, wasn't it? How about you, feeling up to seeing her walk in at the moment?"
Hermione reminded herself of Peter Petigrew, helpless and weak, pleading for mercy. She wasn't him. She was braver. She supposed all the missions she went on as a teenager with her best friends were much more frightening than this.
She looked up at him as if nothing had happened. He hadn't knocked the wind out of her ribs, oh no. He only deserved a mere glare shot in his direction, as if he had merely called her a Mudblood instead of using her first name for the first time ever.
"Now I'm going to point my wand at you. Not to hex you, although it's tempting." He told her with a smirk. "No, it's to fix you up a bit. You don't want my daughter to see you in this condition, I presume?"
Hermione forced on a smile.
"Oh, Malfoy," she said, flinging her arms open as if intending on embracing him, and moving towards him. "I'm so sorry. HIYAAA!"
Draco groaned. Hermione had performed a double-punch square on his chest, she learnt at physical Auror training.
"That was for cowardly hiting a woman." She punched him in the face. "That is for raping me." She kicked him on the groins. "That is for everything else you put me through. Accio wands."
She accepted the wands zooming in her direction. She snapped Draco's into halves. Then into quarters. Then into eightths.
"That's for what you did to Ginny's wand when I needed it the most in my life. Thank you for messing with Auror Ezabelle Camady. Don't feel free to do so again. Scurgify."
She pointed in at her stomach. She felt instantly relieved.
"There's one more thing for me to do."
She swept a good five minutes muttering incantations under her breath, and waving her wand at the papers. She grasped her passport, and her daughter's… and headed off with a smile on her face.
"Don't think of revoking them now that they're sealed. Do you want to find out what happens if you try to? Well you remember Cho Chang's friend that betrayed the DA? Marietta or Mariette or whatever her name was? You will wsh that you had a fate quite similar to hers. Much more lenient, you see. Now, lay off my life and my daughter's. We've lived together for thirteen blissful years," she imitated him "so we don't need you interfering in our lives."
She pointed her wand at him. He got back into shape, and the pain flew away immediately. She opened the door.
"Merci beaucoup, Mr. Malfoy," she called loudly for everyone in the waiting room to hear, her British accent flowing before her once again. "You are very kind indeed. Come, Celeste."
Celeste scowled as she got up and followed her up to the fire-place room.
"What did you drag me along if he didn't need to see me?"
"Oh, but he did want to see you, dear." She said pleasantly. "I convinced him out of it. He isn't the nicest man amongst men, you know."
"You spent ages in there."
"Just to spite you. Patience is something you must learn to attain. Liberty tower!"
!A!
Hermione was at Lavendor Brown's villa in Russia, her luggage, and her daughter's, sprawled on the floor of the living room.
"Thank God Celeste has summer holidays." She said softly. "The bastard might've been stalking her at school."
"Well, Draco Malfoy, Hermione!" Lavender exclaimed. "And you never told me! Oh, Parvati and I had such a crush on him at school. He was a total hottie. Looks, a jock, a smart-ass… which goes to show, appearances aren't everything."
"Indeed they're not. But I have to admit, I feel guilty trespassing here all of a sudden."
"No no, it's nothing. I've missed you. You're welcome to stay here until you're certain that you and that gorgeous Celeste are safe. I'm going to have so much fun, giving her hair tips and sharing beauty products with her. And it's time you and I caught up on each other's lives."
Then her wand buzzed, emanating a green light.
"Oh, great. My boss wants me at the office." Lavender said somberly. "I'll be off. Make yourself at home, don't be shy now. Bye."
"Bye, Lav. Thanks for everything."
She was glad that the two of them had decided to patch things up between them after the Ron/Lavender fiasco at sixth year.
"Celeste, I'm going upstairs to unpack!" She called at the kitchen, where Celeste was making apple-pie.
"Whatever." Came the reply. "Have fun! I'll join you in the excitement when I'm done cooking."
Lavender's villa was humungous. Hermione levitated the luggage up to one of the many guest rooms and following suite.
Celeste hummed merrily, kitchen gloves on. She thought she heard wood rattle. She continued humming. Ok, now she definitely heard it. Someone was tapping on the door. Weird. Haven't they heard of a doorbell?
She opened the door.
A white-blonde man, with her same eye-shape and nose, stood before her on the doorway, simpering at her, carrying a box.
"Hello Celeste. Let me introduce myself, it's Dad."
Thanks for reviewing, if you have. You're the reason I updated hastily, for my standards. Glad y'all liked it.