Disclaimer: I only own all that you don't recognize from the Harry Potter books.

A/N: Quick story notes: This will be a Hermione/Draco story; don't worry about that. You'll see what I mean once you've read this chapter. Also, Aedin's friend Ryan isa girl. Just wanted to clarify that so that there's no confusion there.

Chapter 3

Hermione Granger lay in bed thinking. Ever since having Aedin, finding time to herself to just think was quite hard to do. At the moment, Aedin was at her best friend Ryan's house and Hermione's mother was out with some of her friends leaving the house to Hermione. Only one thing, or more specifically one person was on her mind and that was Ben Jameson, one of Hermione's good friends and co-workers. It wasn't that Hermione didn't like him, because she did, but she wasn't sure if she was quite ready to accept his proposal of dinner. If it had been at any other time, she surely would have loved to say yes, but as it was, Hermione still wasn't quite over what had happened the last time she had a boyfriend.

His name had been Chris Scott. He'd been the perfect boyfriend, or so everyone, Hermione included had thought. That was, he had been the perfect boyfriend until Hermione had caught him cheating on her, with his neighbor- Steve. Needless to say, that relationship had ended, leaving Hermione once again single. It had also been quite tough on Aedin who had really liked Chris, and it had been hard trying to explain to her that her mommy and Chris weren't going to go out with each other any more. Hermione didn't want to make the wrong decision by saying yes to Ben, but she also didn't want to make the wrong decision by saying no.

It was time to call up Ginny formerly Weasley, now Potter. Yes, Ginny would be able to help, and besides, it would be good for Hermione to be able to talk to another female. All week at work she had been partnered with Andy, who had to be one of the most arrogant and just plain annoying people that Hermione had ever had to put up with.

Hermione dragged herself out of bed and over to the fireplace. Throwing down some floo powder she said into the fire nice and loudly, "The Potter Residence," and stuck her head into the fire.

In the background Hermione could hear Ginny.

"Coming, coming. Hold on a second." Hermione laughed as she pictured Ginny rushing about trying to get to the fire.

"Hermione! It's so good to see you," Ginny exclaimed at the sight of her good friend. "How are things going?"

Hermione laughed. "Things are good. I just wanted to know if you wanted to come over, it could just be a girl's night out. I have the house to myself and wanted to talk."

"I'll be right over!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly. "I'll see you in say, five minutes?"

"Sounds good," Hermione replied before pulling out of the fireplace leaving her friend to get ready.

Sure as her word, in five minutes time Ginny came walking out of Hermione's fireplace, as she dusted floo powder off of herself and her clothes. She ran over and gave Hermione a hug. She was smiling as she pulled away.

"So," she said, "You wanted to talk?"

"Yeah," Hermione told her, "I sort of need some advice."

"Well then," Ginny told her, "You've come to the right place. So, spill it."

"Ok, well do you know Ben Jameson, the one from my department in the Ministry?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, I really like him, and he asked me out to dinner on Saturday."

"Oh my gosh, that's great Hermione! You deserve this, ever since, you know..." Ginny trailed off not wanting to bring up Chris and Seamus for that matter. "But, wait." She began slowly. "I know that look. You are going to say yes to him aren't you?"

"Well, that's the thing," Hermione began, "I want to say yes, I really do, but what if something goes wrong? I don't want Aedin, or myself to get attached to him and then have him pull away. Or to have a repeat of what happened with my last boyfriend."

"Hermione," Ginny began, "All he did was ask you out to dinner, right?"

"Well, yeah-"

"Ok, so what's the problem then? It's only dinner; if things don't work then you're not committed to go out with him again. Give it a try, he's a really nice guy, and… he's not too bad on the eyes either." Ginny laughed as she saw the smile on her friend's face. "But," she said, "Harry doesn't have to know that I said that."

"Thanks, Gin. I think that I will say yes."

"So, then. What are you waiting for? Send him an owl!"

Hermione went and got a small piece of parchment and a quill. Dipping it into the ink she began to write a short letter.

Ben,

I would love to have dinner with you on Saturday.

I can't wait.

Hermione

Hermione tied the letter up with a ribbon and attached it to her owl Guinevere's leg.

"Bring this to Ben Jameson," she told the owl. Guinevere hooted a short response before beginning her flight.

"So," began Ginny once the letter had been successfully sent, "What should we do now?"

"Well," Hermione told her as she looked over at her clock; the time was around 9:00 at night. "Aedin is sleeping over her friend Ryan's house and my mother is spending the night with some of her friends a few towns away, so I have the house to myself until tomorrow. What about you? When is Harry expecting you home?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "The 'guys' are over. That would be Ron, Fred, George, Dean, Blaise and whoever else shows up. I didn't want to be home to find out. So basically, it doesn't matter what time I get home, they didn't look like they were leaving any time soon."

"Blaise?" Hermione asked questioningly.

"Yeah. He's been a friend with Harry ever since he came to our side during the war. He's actually really nice. You knew him from school, right?"

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Now that I think about it, he was one of the only Slytherins who wasn't a total jerk to me."

"Well then," Ginny began, "I'll have to introduce you sometime. I think that you two would get along well. He loves to read you know."

"Really?" Hermione asked, her eyes lighting up at the mention of books.

"Yeah," she said. "Of course, I've never been big on books myself so I don't usually talk about them with him, but I think that you two would hit it off well.

"Hey, I have an idea." Ginny said, "Why don't we call up Luna and Parvati and Lav and some of the other girls from Hogwarts and check out that new club, The Blue Phoenix? Just a girl's night out."

"Sounds good," said Hermione, "But are you sure that Harry won't mind?"

"What he doesn't know can't hurt him, now can it?" Ginny laughed. "Besides, if he can have a guy's night then I can have a girl's night out. Come on, let's go and get ready."

Hermione just had to laugh at her friend's spunky attitude as she let herself get dragged along. It was going to be a very long night.

Meanwhile, in another place in London, one Draco Malfoy was awake. He was nervously pacing back and forth, occasionally glancing at the clock. Time seemed to be going by much too quickly for his liking. Midnight tonight was when the second ghost was supposed to come. That, of course assuming that what he had seen the night before hadn't been a figment of his imagination. He may have readily assumed this, had it not been for the fact that not even he could've imagined that sarcastic ghost.

"Great," he groaned. "Tonight her twin brother is coming. I hope that he's nothing like his sister is or I'll be in for a very long night."

Draco glanced up at the clock again. It was already 10:45! Just a minute ago it was 9:00. He really was losing his mind. There had to be something better for him to do to keep his mind off of the clock. He tried sitting down at his very expensive, mahogany desk and working on some of his business deals but he couldn't concentrate. He kept glancing up nervously at the clock that was now going much too slowly for his liking. He tried taking some deep breaths to calm himself down.

Come to think about it, he wasn't even quite sure why he was so nervous. If these ghosts were anything like in that book that he'd read in muggle studies, then this ghost would be showing him the present; or since it wasn't yet Christmas Eve it could be that the ghost would be showing him the near future and what would be happening on Christmas Eve.

Either way, Draco wasn't too anxious to see what this ghost had to show him. Glancing at the clock again, Draco realized that he still had an hour to kill before the ghost came so he decided that he would try to fall asleep for a little while in hopes that this would all just be a strange, strange dream.

Turning off the lights, Draco climbed under his phoenix-feather comforter, which remarkably enough was jade-green and silver colored. He turned onto his side and closed his eyes.

"Agh!" Draco jumped up at least a foot in the air as he heard a loud trumpeting sound being blown right towards his ear. "What the hell was that?" he yelled as he saw a young male ghost staring at him, a cocky grin on his face.

"That, sir, was your wakeup call."

Draco glared at the young ghost. He was most definitely the twin brother of the ghost that had come to him last night. He had curly, straw colored hair and pale, translucent, blue eyes. In his hand he was holding a golden trumpet and he still sported that smug grin on his face.

"And why," Draco asked through clenched teeth, "Did you feel it necessary to blow that thing-" he spat the word thing out, "In my ear? Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, there was a better way to wake me up?"

The ghost looked insulted. "Well, of course I did sir, what kind of person do you take me for? I thought about it, and then I made the decision to blow the horn in your ear. And it worked didn't it?"

Draco groaned. He was most definitely going to have a migraine by the end of the night.

"Ok," Malfoy said, "You've gotten my attention. Now can you hurry up and show me what you are going to show me and let me get on with my life?"

"Hmph, you are just as impatient as Eliza told me you would be." The boy told Draco.

"Eliza?"

"My twin sister. And I'm Jacob."

"Well, Jacob," Draco said, "I don't suppose we can leave anytime soon?"

"Fine." He said. "I'm going to be showing you the near future, stuff that is going to be happening soon. So you know the drill. Grab onto my robes and we'll be off." He said cheerfully.

Cautiously, Draco grabbed a tight hold on the young ghost's robes. He closed his eyes tight. This was even worse than traveling by portkey, and as it was, that always managed to make him feel queasy. The trip didn't seem to take as long as it had the last time, though that may have been because he didn't have to go as far through time as he had when revisiting his childhood years. When they had finally stopped, they were in a place that Draco recognized to be the very fancy, and expensive restaurant The Jade Dragon. Draco had only been there a handful of times himself and each time he had left with a considerably lighter wallet. What made the food at The Jade Dragon so good was that they didn't just rely on magic. Magically reproduced food didn't tend to taste as good as freshly cooked food.

Jacob gestured for Malfoy to follow him. They came over to a table in the corner. At it sat Hermione Granger and another man.

Draco's eyes just about popped out of his head at the sight of Hermione. She looked, stunning; there was no other word to describe it. He once bushy hair was put up into a sophisticated bun, with the rest of her hair flowing down in curls. Malfoy could only imagine how much time it must of taken her to tame that mane. She was dressed in an elegant red dress. She had obviously made a really genuine effort to impress the guy she was with. Who was that guy anyways?

Draco watched as the man reached over and gently gave Hermione a kiss on the lips before pulling away. Hermione obviously looked like she was enjoying herself.

"Who's that man anyways?" Malfoy asked Jacob.

"That's Ben Jameson," he replied. "Hermione accepted his proposal to have dinner with him this coming Saturday."

Saturday, that was only six days away. It had only just turned to Sunday at midnight.

"This is their first date," Jacob began, "Though, by the looks of it, it's definitely not their last."

Draco scowled at the man. He probably didn't even really know Hermione, not that Draco could say he knew her any better. At least though Draco'd known her since they were children. This Ben guy had probably just met her. And who was he anyways, to be deserving of Hermione? He himself had liked her ever since he'd met her, not that that had done him any good.

"This is probably one of the only good things to happen to Hermione ever since her husband- well fiancée, died in the war, and her daughter was born." Jacob told Draco, pulling him right out of his thoughts.

"Fiancée? Daughter?" Draco asked in astonishment.

"Hermione was engaged to Seamus Finnigan during the war," the curly-haired ghost began. "She was pregnant with his child; they had been planning to get married once things with the war had cooled off a bit. But she never got the chance; Seamus was killed fighting for the Order of the Phoenix. He never even got the chance to see his daughter be born."

Draco felt a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He thought that it might have been pity- pity for Hermione, for Seamus, and for their daughter.

Malfoy looked back over at Hermione and Ben. There wasn't much more to see here. She looked happy, like she hadn't been able to get out and just let loose for so long. Though Draco supposed that she hadn't been, trying to raise a young daughter as a single mother. He'd never had quite as much respect for Hermione as he did right now.

"Come on," the ghost said, "It's time to go; we still have much to see."

Their next stop was right in the kitchen/dining room of a nicely furnished, well-decorated house. Everywhere you looked there were signs that a loving family lived there. On the refrigerator were pictures of flowers and rainbows and all the other things that a little girl would draw. The biggest picture though, was that of a family standing in the yard of their house. There were three people drawn in the picture. On one side was a drawing of an older woman labeled Grandma. On the other side, a picture of a young woman labeled Mommy, and in the middle was drawn a young girl with the name Aedin under it. Draco guessed that they were in Hermione's house and that her daughter Aedin had drawn all of those pictures which Hermione had proudly hung on the fridge for all to see as they walked into the room.

In the middle of the kitchen was a table, set with three places for dinner. It looked like the best china had been taken out, though for what occasion, Draco knew not. Coming from the other room, Draco could hear some voices. Following the lead of Jacob, he went to go check them out.

The voices where coming from the living room of the family. A fire was lit in the fireplace providing light for the room. An older woman sat rocking on a rocking chair. Hermione was sitting down on a couch as she looked at her young, five-year-old daughter playing on the floor. Malfoy guessed when he saw the Christmas tree and all of the toys and bits of wrapping paper laying on the floor that today was none other than Christmas Day.

Even Malfoy had to smile at the sight of Aedin playing on the floor. She was dressed up in a red dress with a bow, and her hair was done up nicely in pigtails. In her hands she was brushing the hair of a doll.

"All, done," she said proudly to her mother. "I don't want to play anymore, can you weed me a story?" She asked sweetly.

"Dinner is going to be ready soon, honey. Why don't you go wash up for supper? I'll read you a story before bed."

Aedin's lip began to quiver. "Pwease? Just one storwy?"

"You heard what I said," Hermione said firmly, "Now go get ready for supper."

"Fine!" Aedin said marching off.

Draco began laughing. Aedin was unbelievably like her mother with her love of books and stubborn streak.

Hermione laughed. "Sometimes, Mum, I just don't know what to do with that girl."

The older Mrs. Granger looked up. "You think that she's bad dear?" she asked, "When you were young you were an absolute nightmare."

Draco had to laugh at hearing this. Perfect Granger, a nightmare child? He never would have guessed that. He knew that when she wanted to be she could be a monster but he had always pictured her being the perfect daughter.

"Really?" Hermione asked her mother.

"Oh, yes dear. Whenever you got angry you would stomp around the house and slam doors. You used to always make strange things happen too. Of course, now I know that that was because you are a witch but at the time, we had no idea."

"What sort of stuff used to happen when I was mad?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well," she began, "There was this one time when you got mad at Mrs. Halfrey next door and you set her wig on fire. And another time when you were playing with your cousin Jeffrey and he stole one of your books and you somehow managed to turn him into a dog. That was the first time that the Ministry of Magic had to get involved. They erased your cousin's and your memory of the event. That's when they first told your father and I that you were a witch and that when young witches and wizards are young, things like that tend to happen. Of course they told us that it would be best to wait until you got your acceptance letter to Hogwarts to let you know that you were a witch."

"Wait," Hermione began, "You mean that you and Dad knew all along that I was a witch?"

"I'm sorry we couldn't tell you dear, but the Ministry made us promise that we wouldn't say anything and to let you find out when you got your Hogwarts letter."

"Oh," Hermione replied.

"Mommy," Draco heard Aedin say as she walked into the room. "I'm all cleaned up. Can we eat now?"

"Of course. Why don't you go sit down and I'll bring the food out."

"Ok, then." Aedin said as she cheerfully skipped into the dining room.

Draco watched as the family sat down to eat. The meal wasn't incredibly big. It consisted of a tiny turkey, some vegetables and a small bit of fruit. That was barely enough to fill himself, nonetheless a family of three with a growing daughter.

"Why is their Christmas meal so small?" Draco asked Jacob.

"Money's tight," he said. "Hermione works in the ministry to support her family. She doesn't get paid much and she hasn't gotten a raise since she began working there."

"Why not?" Draco asked. "She was top of the year at school. I would've thought that she would've had tons of job offers."

"After school, with the war going on she never got the chance to go to school some more so that she could prepare to be a healer like she had wanted to be. And then when she became pregnant, it became almost impossible. Her and Seamus had been hoping that once the war was over that they could settle down, get married properly and then once Aedin was born, Hermione could go off to school like she wanted to. But then Seamus was killed, and Hermione's dad died of a stroke so her mother moved in with her to help with Aedin. But her mother could only do so much. Seamus and Hermione had never created a will so his parents wouldn't give Hermione anything after he died. They were mad that their grandchild was born out of wedlock. They refused to talk to or see Hermione and Aedin once Seamus was killed."

Draco was furious. How could they just ignore their son's fiancée and daughter? It was horrifying that somebody could just do that; turn away their grandchild just because she was born out of wedlock. It was crazy. Things were crazy with the war going on. There just wasn't the time or the money to plan a wedding. Hermione and her daughter deserved much better.

"How could they be so inconsiderate?" Draco asked.

"I'm not sure," Jacob replied.

"Can't anything be done about it? Can't she find a better job?"

"Without proper schooling after Hogwarts there aren't many places that would offer her a job, especially as a single mother."

"But that's discrimination!" Draco exclaimed incredulously. "There has to be something that can be done!"

Jacob just looked at him. "Are you dimwitted or what?" he asked. "Think about what you're saying. You're the CEO of Malfoy inc.! Why don't you offer her a job?"

Draco just looked at him. "I could now couldn't I? But why would she want to work for me anyways? She hates me, she wouldn't trust me if I asked her."

"Well why do you have to ask her?" Jacob asked Draco. "I know that Hermione's good friend Ginny Potter is friends with Blaise. You could get him to meet Hermione and then he could offer her the job. She would never have to know that it was you who thought of it."

"That's genius." Draco said to the ghost. "She would never have to know that it was me. Of course I would make sure to put her into a well paying position. I already know that she's competent. She was one of the smartest students to ever be seen in Hogwarts. Any person would be crazy not to offer her a job."

Jacob smiled. Maybe this whole idea that his mother had planned with him and his sister and his other friend who would be talking to him tomorrow was a good idea.

"Come," he said. "It's time to leave here and return home. I think that you have seen enough for tonight. Tomorrow you will be visited by the final ghost."

Draco looked apprehensive. "Does this last ghost happen to be of any relation to you or your sister by any chance?"

"Nope. But he's our best friend. He's just like me and my sister." Jacob said all this with a sly grin on his face.

"Great, just great." Draco said as he grabbed onto Jacob's robe. Within minutes they had landed safely back at Draco's home.

"I have to go now." Jacob told Draco, "But it was very nice meeting you." And with a final toot of his trumpet he was gone.

Draco collapsed tiredly onto his bed. "Two down, one to go."

A/N: So how'd you like it? I know that it took me forever but it's my longest chapter yet. I've been incredibly lazy but one of my reviewers sent me a review that got me off of my lazy bottom and writing again and for that I say thanks. Anyways Please Review!"

Kasey (Kaydotsidot)