DISCLAIMER: No matter how much I beg, plead, or try to cast a spell with a stick, I have to acknowledge that I am not J.K. Rowling, I do not own Harry Potter, and no amount of wishing will make me so. All characters familiar to you are J.K's.

Chapter 1

10 years later

(So Draco and Hermione are around 27)

"So, darling, how was work today?" Hermione asked Draco, while passing him a bowl of French onion soup.

"God, it was absolutely terrible!" Draco exclaimed, while reaching for a spoon. "All day long, crackpot wizards from some cult or another calling my store and telling me that I'm going to go to hell because I sell clothes that show a neck! Apparently they had a meeting today." Draco owned a designer robe and formal outfit store frequented by celebrities all over the world. He was the best-kept secret in the industry.

Hermione clucked sympathetically and passed him the spoon he was reaching for, then leaned over and kissed him. "I'm sorry it was such a bad day. But it must be better now, now that you are at home, isn't it?"

"Of course it is, love." Draco then started on his soup. "Everything is better when you're here. So where is Estelle?"

Hermione patted the baby monitor tied around her waist. "She's upstairs in her crib, sleeping. Narcissa tired her out while playing with her today, so I got the lucky pleasure of putting her to bed early. Estelle looks so cute when she's sleeping. I mean, it looks like she is an angel. Why can't she stay that way when she wakes up?"

Draco chuckled, and quoted, "The action of the mother when she was a child will return twofold to her child. At least, that's what my mom said. I think she was trying to explain the way I acted as a child. So how much trouble were you as a kid?"

Hermione smacked him on the head with her baby monitor. "Shut up."

Draco rubbed his head and mock-glared at Hermione. "Don't blame me when-"

Hermione silenced him with a kiss.

Long after dinner, Draco climbed out of bed, and slowly wandered into Estelle's room. She was lying there, fast asleep, her small tufts of brown hair glinting in the moonlight. He knew that there were a pair of startling grey eyes under those eyelids, and hoped that she wouldn't wake up. It was amazing how much she looked like a cross between Hermione and himself. She was beautiful.

Draco slowly slid down against the banister of the crib. He sat there, and started thinking about both everything and absolutely nothing at the same time. He thought about his past. He thought about his future. He thought about everything in-between. Yet he still couldn't banish the thoughts of the woman sleeping soundly in the room down the hall.

Draco couldn't say he liked her from the beginning. He hated her from the minute her young Mudblood nose was stuck straight in the air as she walked into Hogwarts. Yet, he reflected, it was probably his upbringing more than actual dislike.

As she got smarter and smarter, Draco fell from the favor of most of the teachers in exchange for this so-called 'brilliant' young girl. She didn't even grow up with magic, he wanted to scream. But he restrained himself as any proper Malfoy must, and tried to make her life a living hell. It wasn't because of Potter he bothered the Golden Trio, in was because of her.

Naturally, he was delighted when he was told by his father to kidnap Hermione. Normally he didn't care a shit for what the 'Dark Lord' wanted, but this time it would be a pleasure to. She would be his puppet, and the strings were his to pull.

Unfortunately, this didn't last very long. Draco felt sorry for her, an almost unknown feeling, when she was crying about parents she never had. It made him want to stop this illusion, to let her go, but the memory of Hogwarts was too strong and she became Mrs. Malfoy.

It was strange in the beginning to be kissing her and waking up to seeing her smiling face. Like all of his family before him, however, he could act and pretend like the greatest of actors.

Soon, he got used to it, and slowly started enjoying it. He tried to convince himself that he was still acting; he couldn't feel anything for her. Eventually in the dead of the night, like tonight, he admitted to himself that he loved Hermione.

That completed his transformation from actor to believer. He forgot for weeks at a time that his wife was Hermione Granger. His family slowly fell from thought, as all obligations to his father slowly faded from thought. Mom knows, he thought. She would have to be blind not to. Hermione didn't know the difference, and never would.

That was his only problem right now. Hermione didn't truly love him. He thought he would love having her be a puppet. It never occurred to him that this would be a curse. It nearly killed him, seeing her everyday loving him without having any control. She belonged with Potter or Weasley. Draco knew that. He also saw the extensive search both of them made to find her, when she didn't even know they existed.

Draco stood up, and looked at Estelle one more time. She stirred once, and lay calm once again. In the darkness, he sobbed uncontrollably over the daughter he shouldn't have, with the wife he never deserved.

Hermione wasn't sleeping as soundly as Draco thought. She was muttering and turning in her sleep, apparently in the middle of a vivid dream.

Hermione wandered into a place larger than she had ever seen before. Others dressed like her, in robes of black, surrounded her. She was more nervous than she had ever been before. Trying to soothe her nerves, Hermione looked up to the ceiling. A starry night winked down at her. It looked like there wasn't even a ceiling there, and the hall melted into the sky. She smiled faintly at that comforting thought. There was a hat there, patched and worn, sitting on a stool. Surprisingly, the hat opened its brim and began to sing a song. Hermione didn't even notice the song, as wild thoughts filled her. So this is what magic is. Would she be able to do something like that? One by one, kids stepped up, and tried on the hat. It seemed to sort them into four different tables with funny names. She would learn them soon enough, she reasoned. Hermione Granger, a teacher called. Nervous still she stepped up to try on the hat, and-

Hermione woke up to a morning of sunshine and birds singing. She lay back against her headboard and thought for a moment. Hermione Granger? That certainly wasn't her name, and yet it seemed so familiar to her. Also, her dream seemed more like a memory than a dream. It wasn't the first weird dream about that place. She had no idea where it was. Most likely, it never existed. Hermione shrugged it off and went to see how Estelle was doing.

AN: This chapter kinda took a turn I didn't expect…Oh well. There was a little bit more sadness there, so it wasn't all birdsong and sunshine like the last one. Just wait till Hermione gets her memory back! cackles evilly On a completely different note, has anybody finished the Half Blood Prince? I LOVED IT! runs into a spasm I honestly thought it was the best one yet. If you haven't got it yet, drop everything you are doing and go get it. It is that good. Anyway, read and review!