If you never ask questions

You'll never hear truths

I don't own this story.

So kindly don't sue.

Seven Years Since Hogwarts

Just so you know. Draco will not be nice in this fic. He's only nice to Blaise, his best friend, and his kids. To everyone else, including his mother at times, he's still Draco. And just so you know, you aren't supposed to necisarily like the character introduced in this chapter. But she's definately going to give Draco a run for his money.

Chapter 2: Madam Alexandra

Later that night, after all three of children had safely been tucked into bed and told their bed time story for the evening, Alexandra found Draco Malfoy sprawled out on the couch in his office. Alexandra laid one of her wiry hands on his shoulder and shook him awake. Draco jumped at the sight of her. She wasn't a very tall women, maybe only five four, and she wasn't really what he'd expected. (Especially because he wasn't really expecting anyone, including short witches wearing seven muggle watches on one right forearm, and six on the other.) Alexandra shoved her hand directly under his nose and held it there as if to beg for a handshake.

"Hello Draco. My name is Madam Alexandra, but add the Madam part and I'll strangle you." Alexandra removed her hand from under his nose and shoved it into the pocket of her vermilionn robes. She removed a piece of parchment and a pair of chrome spectacles, completely covered with rhine stones. It became very evident to Draco that the glasses were just for show as she put them over her eyes to read and began unfolding the parchment. His first clue was the fact that she seemed to be a least one year younger than he, and his second was that they had no lenses.

"Well, Draco, I must say I was shocked to get your letter. Twenty-five year olds aren't my exactly my usual clients, so exuse me if I'm harsher than normal." Alexandra picked up Draco's legs so she could sit down on the couch. Draco shot her a look of confusion.

"Isn't it a bit early for you to be here?"

"Not really, it's nearly twelve o'clock at night, that's not early at all," she stated non-chalantly, not even looking up from the parchment. "Besides, I find it's best when working with single parents; the evenings are their only spare moments."

"How old are you?" Draco asked, leaning in to get a better view of her face. Alexandra removed her glasses. Draco could tell she was about to say something very sardonic and frank.

"I've been married two years, and that's all you need to know." Alexandra replaced the glassed on her face to read the last line of parchment, took them off, refolded the parchment, and shoved both back into her pocket.

"If you intend to have any business here, I demand you answer me without all these side steps. How old are you?"

"Twenty-Four," she stated frankly. Draco began to gain interest suddenly with her robe pocket.

"What was that parchment anyway?"

"That dear Draco, was the biography of your life from your point of view. And I must admit I am disappointed."

Draco thought that she must've just had a dry sense of humor, because there wasn't anything slightly disappointing about his life except maybe his marriage. Draco also gathered that she liked patronizing people. He groaned. This might, after all, turn out more annoying than his marriage. "Do explain."

"Well, for someone who thinks they're a sex god you sure did settle for someone beneath you. Come on, Pansy? And not only that, she dumped you. I'm sorry to say, but that's just pathetic."

"That's it? That was only the last seven years of my life. How can you dictate your ideals on such a short time frame?" Draco begged her to answer.

"That's not a short time frame. You're only twenty-five, seven years is a third of your life. But that's not my only promblem. You just didn't strike me as the kind of person to be a crony to 'Lord Voldimort.' It's just not like you to bow like that to anyone. It wasn't like he was sharing his power with you anyways. He had your father. Where did you even get off with thinking he made you strong. All he ever did was use you, and to this day you won't admit it." Draco looked at Alexandra with shock but more so outrage.

"How dare you speak with me in such a manner!"

"Oh, well you don't seem to be having any problem standing up now. So my question is, was your future just not a worthy enough cause? Or do you just really like to pretend that you have more self respect than you do?" Alex could feel a twinge of pain as he struck her cheek. She turned her face towards him. He saw crystal drops pouring lightly from her cheeks, but she herself was still very calm. Had it not bothered her that her client had struck her?

"Are you alright?"

Alexandra turned her other cheek to face him.

"Go ahead, I don't mind, but bashing me won't hide you from the truth. You let yourself get played. That's half the reason I joined the light side. I didn't want anyone pushing me around. At least that way I knew if I was killed, I'd die holding my head high. You are the most prideful man I've ever helped, and yet you allowed yourself to be pushed around. And that makes no sense to me."

Draco tried to figure her technics out, but couldn't. On one hand, she seemed like just a bitter old wench, but on the other, he could see that she was incredibly strong minded. It suddenly struck him that he was actually gaining some respect for her.

"I believe that if someone pushes you around, you're supposed to push them back, only harder. Harry pushed me. The Order pushed around my family, thus, I hated Harry, and I hated the Order."

"Draco, you have every right to be angry. But your grudges are causng me to be mean. I don't normally like to be like this, but you allowed you life to be ruined over pride. If you want to push, be happy. People feel triumph over you when you're miserable, even if you are successful. Just move on and heal. They'll never notice you anyways. All you can expect to gain is your own happiness." Alexandra breathed deep, she hoped she could break through. After all, Draco was known for sticking to his guns. "Here's the thing Draco. You were down trodden, so you fought. You have just been kicked in the balls by Pansy, and I expect you to want to fight. But you have to do the hardest thing you will ever have to do."

"And that would be?" Draco sneered.

"Not to fight. There is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do about Pansy. Nor do you want to do anything about her. The only thing she's good for is fueling the compost heap in my back yard. Your job is not to get your kid's mom back. It's to get them a mom to begin with. Pansy was not their mother. Their mom would not have left her kids, got it? Some parents leave their kids, it's true, but Pansy had no involvement whatsoever, nor did she want any. Besides, if only half of what you think is true, any women would be crazy not to marry you just to raise your kids. No mother would leave a family like that." Draco looked over at Alexandra and breathed deep. She was right. His job was not to fight for Pansy, it was to fight for his kids. And his kids needed a mother.

"I take it I'm supposed to start dating?" Alexandra sighed. That was where things would get a bit more complex.

"You really like asking questions, don't you?" Alexandra's face broke into a smile. Draco realized that she was actually quite pretty, if not slightly insane. "Draco, just to warn you, most women you'd be interested in are married. Purebloods have a habit of arranging marriages. Ipso Facto, you can't seek them out anymore. For the sake of your kids, muggleborns will have to do. Besides, Pansy will get really pissed that you replaced her with one." Draco smiled. He liked the way Alex was thinking. It's true, being replaced would be bad, by a mudbl-muggleborn would be worse. "I have a list of names of eligible girls in your age-range. I.E. twenty three to a day younger than you. Any younger and they're not ready for another woman's kids, and most women don't like dating younger men. I also have a picture placed beside each name and a description, which by the way, doesn't include their lineage. That way, you can't pureblood search anymore."

"You've got no life, but you bloody think of everything. " Draco remarked, taking the list out of her hands.

"Why thank you. Oh, I think you know number eight."

Alexandra pointed her wand up at the ceiling and apparated out of the Mansion.

Draco's eyes followed the list until he reached number eight. His face paled and he could feel the blood drain away from his face. It was Hermione Granger. Draco looked at the picture. In all this time, Hermione hadn't changed her appearances at all. Not that Draco himself had, but it was still a slight shock. It was as though time itself had stood still for her. The picture of Hermione waved to get his attention, rolled her eyes at him ignoring her, and when finally the receiver of his gaze, directed it towards the bottom right-hand corner of the photo. Draco looked at it and realized why she'd pointed there. The reason the picture looked as though she hadn't changed, is it was taken a week after their graduation.

Draco groaned as he read all other candidates. None of them sounded even remotely interesting. They were all accountants, secretaries, or bankers who's hobbies all consisted of baking muffins. But for him to ask out Hermione, well, it was down right preposterous! She would most definitely find some sort of charges to bring him up on.

Draco blatantly and out rightly refused to even consider her. It was no good, and that was final. Not to mention she was friends with Pothead and Weasel. There was no way in hell he'd stoop so low. Besides, he was still good looking, being only twenty-five, he could get any girl he wanted.

Ink began to bleed onto the bottom of the parchment. It started to shift and grow darker until it was forming the perfectly shaped print of Alexandra's writing.

"Draco, don't tell me you're still bashing those two? It's been seven years. For goodness sake, get over yourself, I have enough I have to do without babysitting cliententell."

Draco gritted his teeth. Sometimes she could be sweet, but when she was annoyed she was no force to be trifled with. She was down right evil even, she might've even been able to put his father back in line.

Draco picked up a quill and wrote her a quick response. "Are you always this mean to clients?"

"Nope. Only you, but that's cause I knew you from school, and it bothers me that you haven't changed one bit." A little smily face appeared under the comment. Draco began to smirk. She was really quite something. But he couldn't figure out if that something was good or not.

"Hey, Draco, I took the liberty of visiting your company. Who knew the big bad Draco owned an online muggle company? Nice. I always wondered who invented netflex."

Draco could swear he heard her laughing in his ear. ''Weird.'

Draco shoved the parchment in his pocket, rolled over, and fell back to sleep on his couch. He'd seriously have to think before he gave the whole dating thing a nickel of his time.

-----

Ron awoke to find that his wife was missing from his side. He began to pull the covers away from himself when she walked in from the bathroom. Carmen trudged over to the bed and crawled underneath the covers. Ron imediately fell back onto his pillow, relieved that she was there again.

"Where were you?" Ron asked frantically. Carmen rolled over to face him and smiled. He hated it when she did that, it made him feel like he'd said something incredibly silly and she was actually enjoying it.

"It's so cute that you're worried. Didn't you see me come in through the bathroom?" Ron nodded and sank into the bed further. Carmen planted a goodnight kiss on his cheek and collasped into the bed completely. "Good night. I love you."

"Love you too," his muffled voice came from beneath the sheets. Carmen laid back into the bed. If he ever found out where she had been, he'd have freaked for sure. It was better not to worry him, until morning that is. She knew very well that she'd lied. But her concious's concillation was that she hadn't completely lied, just allowed him to jump to the wrong conclusions, and that it might just cause some people, including herself, a great deal of happiness and security. She hated what was going on. But she hated lying more. Ron however, wouldn't understand her actions, and it was necissary to lie for the time being.

Carmen looked over at Ron. He gave a slight grunt as she poked him. Had he already fallen asleep? Yes, it appeared so. Carmen knew she was wrong. She shouldn't of done it, but she couldn't pass up the oppurtunity. She couldn't refuse a personal request from one of her best friends. But Ron didn't know her, he didn't know that she was friends with his wife, and he didn't really want to know. As far as he could see, Carmen's friends and his were synonomous. Unfortunately for him that was a lie. She'd still kept in touch with some of her old friends from school. She'd still kept in touch with the Slytherins. He wouldn't hated that. And she would've hated that Ron hated that. She'd come so far to marry him. Carmen wasn't going to ruin it with differences in taste. And it wasn't as though she saw her old friends often. But it did so happen that she saw them now.

Carmen thought that they might even start doubting her if she stayed too long with their old enemies. But it wasn't that she didn't want to tell him and the Aurors the truth, but she never really knew how. So long as you asked her, Carmen had no problem with telling you things, but she never felt right telling people things that they never asked to know. That just seemed weird to her.

Carmen kept thinking about her constant dodging of the truth until much later, around three o' clock, when she finally fell asleep.