One Fine Day

Chapter 6: Potions and Missing Persons

Previously:

"Well, as soon as you would like. The result of it will be given just moments after we add the hairs."

"Oh! That's great. Now, will you need to know whose hair is whose?"

"No, we add them at the same time."

"Okay, well, I'll get back to you on that!" Hermione smiled and left the Hospital Wing to find her daughter.

Hermione walked the halls and found her way back to the quidditch pitch. She found a seat in the stands and watched as Harry and Marli-Jane flew around on brooms tossing a quaffle back and forth. Hermione smiled as she saw Marli fake a throw at Harry, then throw it as she whipped around him, to have it go by his head. Marli began laughing and smiling, and Hermione wished to herself that she would be that happy with Draco.

"What's eatin you?" Hermione looked around and saw Draco walking through the stands looking at her strangely.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you left with Harry earlier then I saw you take off for the castle, and now you're here, looking thoughtful and meditative at the same time, while still looking sick to your stomach as if you're gonna hurl."

"What a great picture, Draco! Actually, I was just thinking. About what could've been if I hadn't left." Well, that's what I could have been thinking anyway.

"Well. Do you need any company?"

"You can stay here. I don't mind." Hermione looked at him and thought. As a thought popped into her head, she smiled. "Actually... I think I could use a hug. Do you do those?"

"I think I can manage one." Draco smiled then walked to where he was standing right in front of her. He leaned down, she looked up, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She snaked her hands to his head, pinched, pulled and-

"Ow! What was that for?"

"What was what for?" Hermione looked at him as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You pulled my hair!"

"Oh! I did? Oh, Draco. I didn't mean to. I'm really sorry! Did it hurt?" Hermione pretended to pet his head as if offering some sort of comfort.

"It didn't hurt too bad, I just wasn't expecting it." Draco continued to rub the back of his head and Hermione held tightly to the hair in her hands. She smiled and sat back down. She looked back at the pitch and noticed that Harry and Marli-Jane weren't up there anymore. She stood up quickly then it dawned on her that they were probably in the changing rooms. She walked out of the stands and found herself being followed. She turned around and saw Draco walking about ten paces behind her.

"Do you need something?"

"Actually, yes. I was going the same place you are, for I need to talk to my best friend, Harry."

"Oooookay." Hermione turned back around and continued onwards to the changing rooms.

As the two of them made their way down towards Harry and Marli-Jane, they walked in complete silence.

"Mom! Did you see me? It was fantastic! You should try it!" Marli-Jane ran out of the changing room and ran to give her mom a huge hug.

"Yeah, sweetie! I saw you! Come on. I've got something I want to do. Come along." Hermione looked at Harry who was talking to Draco and he looked up, saw the look on her face and followed her.

"Hermione? Why do you have that look on your face?"

"Well, Madame Pomfrey is going to to the thing. You know, the paternity thing?" On this last part, she leaned in and whispered it to him. Harry's eyes went wide.

"Seriously? What do you have to do?"

Hermione took her clasped hand out of her pocket and showed him the hair held tightly in her hand.

"That's it?"

"I have to get one from Marli-Jane as well, but yeah."

"Wow, I didn't think it would be this easy..."

"Neither did I. So, will you come with me?"

"Uh... sure." Hermione smiled and the three of them walked to the Hospital Wing. She opened the door and was surrounded by a hustling and bustling Madame Pomfrey.

"I told them not to mess with those plants! She specifically laid signs out for them so no one would mess with them-" Madame Pomfrey kept talking to herself as she tended to the three patients laying side-by-side with enormous welps on their hands and each of them had an enlarged portion of their body, may it be an ear, finger or nose. Hermione let out a little cough to signal her arrival. Once completed with her treatments, Madame Pomfrey scurried over to Hermione and asked her to follow her into an adjoining office. Hermione turned to Marli-Jane.

"Sweetie, I have to go do something. Will you sit here? Please don't go anywhere."

"Okay Momma." Hermione kissed her on the forehead and followed Madame Pomfrey.

When Hermione looked inside, she saw five cauldrons brewing different potions. Hermione turned to look at Harry, whom she had just remembered was with her. He gave her an encouraging smile and she walked further into the room.

"Now, Ms. Granger, you have those hairs?"

"Yes. They're right here." Pulling out the two hairs she held so delicately in her pocket, she handed them over to Madame Pomfrey. Madame Pomfrey walked over to the fourth cauldron from the door and motioned for Hermione and Harry to sit in the chairs on the wall. They followed her non-verbal orders and sat in the green vinyl chairs she pointed to.

Hermione took a deep breath as she watched Madame Pomfrey add the two hairs. After the changing of potion colors from puce, to aqua-marine to a hot pink, Madame Pomfrey looked at a duller-than-hot pink and ladeled out just a spoonful and placed it in a cup on the table at the back of the room. Madame Pomfrey got out a muggle microscope and took a sample of the potion and placed it on a slide. After looking at the slide for about twenty minutes, Madame Pomfrey cleaned up her stuff and walked back over to Hermione and Harry.

"Hermione, dear. Can I talk to you in my office?" Hermione looked at Harry and he nodded in encouragement. She nodded, stood up and followed Madame Pomfrey into a little white office just off of the cauldron room. She turned around a last time to see Harry stepping out, she suspected he was checking on Marli-Jane. Thank Merlin I have such a great friend as he!

"Please sit, Ms. Granger. Now, you came to me wanting to know if the man in question is in fact, your daughter's father. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Well, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" This comment caused Hermione to squirm in her seat.

"Um, I guess I'll take the good news first."

"All right. The good news, well I hope this is good for you, well, the man in question you are wondering about, well, in relation to Marli-Jane, he is the father." Hermione let out an extremely loud sigh.

"That's, uh, great!" Hermione chuckled and looked at the wall to see a picture, moving of course, of Madame Pomfrey, a man about her age, and a man quite a bit younger holding a girl about five. "Is that your family?"

"Why, yes. It is. The older man is my husband, and the boy there is my son, Dimetrius, and his daughter, Lollita. We call her Lollie. Her mother died in childbirth. We really loved her..."

"I'm so sorry. So, you said there was some bad news."

"Yes, there is. In fact it's horrible." Hermione slightly paled and the smile faded from her usually cheery face.

"And...?"

"Well, the horrible, awful news is that there is no bad news! It's just a facade I put up to give a little humor to my patients."

"Oh, hah. Yeah, that's quite a mood lifter. So, I guess I should go back out and talk to Marli. And apparently, her father."

"Yes. Hermione? If you don't mind me asking, I mean, girl to girl, who is the father?"

"Oh, well, it's quite a complicated story."

"I have time."

"Okay, well, after graduation, my seventh year, do you remember the graduation-masquerade ball Dumbledore put on?" Madame Pomfrey nodded and Hermione continued. "Well, I danced with a guy all night and never knew who he was. The next morning, I woke up and went to my room without knowing who he was. So while I was here, I discovered that my daughter's father is in fact, Draco Malfoy." Hermione started to giggle. "Wow, this feels like when I was still in school and talking to Ginny about all this stuff!" Hermione giggled again and Madame Pomfrey joined in. "So, yeah, I should probably go talk to them. Thanks."

"Anytime. Though, from now on, I'd suggest staying away from those masquerade balls!" Hermione smiled and left the room to see an empty chair where she left her daughter.

A/N: I'm sorry I didn't add this to the previous chapter, but a long-awaited apology is needed! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! I just haven't been in a writing mood recently. I've been extremely busy with school, family deaths, and new additions, concerts and school work in general! I just never really could write. If I had time, I would sit at the computer screen for hours on end trying to figure out what to write. Then just a few days ago, an inspiration hit me and I sat down and typed up the rest of the last chapter and this one. Then I was going through and rereading the story just before I finished this chapter, I noticed that I had so many errors. One major one is where in the first chapter, first paragraph, I was thinking about changing Hermione's name to Harmony, and I never changed it back and that's what's written there. And there are some spacing problems throughout since my parent's keyboard has a stuck spacebar. But mine is fine. Again, I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I hope you liked this chapter. I'm not promising when the next chapter will be out. I have quarter tests this week and then I'm going to France for a week with my school and I can't write any during that time.

So, please review! It makes my day! And it makes me write a little more before I leave on vacation!