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Part 2

Three years had passed since that fateful day. It was Devon's birthday today yet Hermione could do nothing about it. All she had left of her baby boy was his birth certificate, which the hospital had sent to her the next day, and a picture of the baby along with it. Besides that, all she had were her memories. For Hermione, the giving away of her baby boy had been the last straw.

She had moved out of the house, much to Alexandra's pleasure, and bought a flat of her own. Her only purpose of living from then on was to find Devon. The possibility that Alexandra had killed him had lingered in her mind but she paid it no heed. She had looked in every orphanage and every foster home whether they were muggle or magical but there was no positive result.

As of present, Hermione was a top-class interior designer. She designed the best houses of the wizarding world. Many manors and houses had been redone with her magic. The Weasley house was her biggest accomplishment though. She had turned the rundown house into a beautiful, comfortable house which was slightly larger. The whole idea for the renovation of the house was of the Weasley children. They sent their parents off to Romania to visit Charlie and by the time they got back, the house stood completely redone, awaiting their arrival.

Life had been extremely uneventful in all other aspects. She had never tried dating after Draco. She was too absorbed in her work to find time for such a trivial thing anyway. Frequent visits were made to her father who had been discharged from the hospital. Her friends often had get-togethers which she attended. They had never known about her pregnancy and she didn't plan on telling them now. As for Draco, she just said that it didn't work out between them and they split. Her friends, especially Ron, seemed very happy to hear it. Ron tried asking her out a few times but she always denied his offers. After a while, he stopped asking altogether.

"Hermione?" the voice of Susan Bones startled her from her thoughts.

"Yes, Susan?"

"We have a new assignment. A new manor was built in central Wizarding London. The owner just called to give us the job. He's owled asking when we can start because he wants it done as soon as possible."

"A manor … it will take a few weeks; a month at the most. Inform – whatever the owner's name is – of it. We'll be starting tomorrow. Can you please tell everyone else too, Susan?"

"Sure." Susan left her office.

Great, now she had something else to divert her mind from her son.

The next day, Hermione showed up at the address of the manor. After knocking until her knuckles were red, the door finally opened.

On the other side stood Draco Malfoy. His expression suddenly turned to one of pure hate when he saw her. "Granger," he spat.

Hermione was also in a state of shock. How could Susan have failed to mention who the owner of the manor was? They were never supposed to meet again. She would have preferred never seeing his face again rather than seeing the way he was looking at her now. It truly hurt and all her emotions from before surfaced. "Draco," she whispered.

Something flickered in his eyes. "It's Malfoy to you. What the hell are you doing here, Granger? Get the hell off my property!" he shouted.

She took a step back in fear. No, she would not cower. Determinedly, she took a step forward and began talking in a firm voice, "I have every right to be here, Malfoy. Was it not you who called my company for interior designing services? I'm the one who will be leading it."

He stood quietly for a moment. "I didn't know you were in that company."

"I'm not; I own it," Was her smug reply.

"My point was that if I had known sooner, I would never have made that contract with you. Now it's too late to change and I want this done quickly. However, that is all you will be doing. I want to see you and your team here at nine everyday and gone by six. Understand?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Good. The sooner this is done, the better. Come inside and I will show you the manor." He led her inside, a frown still set upon his face. He showed her the entire manor, from the first floor to the second. At the end of the second floor, laughing voices were heard. Out of curiosity, she went ahead to the source of the noise only to be stopped by Draco's voice, "come back here, Granger."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a small figure came running out of the room. "Daddy!" it squealed before charging at Draco and latching onto his legs. Draco sighed and picked up the small figure which turned out to be a small boy. He had the same pale skin as Draco, the same white-blond hair, and upon a closer look, Draco's grey eyes too.

For the second time that day, Hermione stood gaping. Clearly he was Draco's son but Hermione had to ask. "You have a son?"

Before Draco could reply, a motherly looking old woman came out of the room the child came from seconds ago. "Draco, I'm glad you've come up. Devon is being quite mischievous and absolutely refuses to have breakfast." She went forward and took the boy from Draco's arms. "Isn't that right, little one?" she asked him. The little boy only laughed.

Hermione stood watching the scene unfold in horror. This boy was named Devon. He looked around three years of age. He was an exact copy of his father. Was this a coincidence or was this her child?

"Granger?" Draco's sharp voice snapped her out of her reverie. "Follow me."

She dumbly obeyed as he led her into a room nearby. She couldn't help but take a glance back at the boy who was now running along the hallway. When he asked her to sit, she blatantly refused and started questioning him. "Who was that boy?"

"I thought you figured out that he was my son."

"Where is his mother?"

He didn't answer.

"Did you name him?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions? I am under no obligation to answer and I won't. Devon doesn't concern you. Get to work," He said angrily.

"Of course Devon concerns me; He's my son!" the words came tumbling out before she could stop them.

"He is not!" Draco shouted, outraged. "How dare you call him your son after dumping him in an orphanage? You don't deserve to call him your son!"

"You're wrong; you don't know anything!" Hermione shouted back.

"I know enough. You told me you had an abortion! What happened, did something go wrong with the process? Is that why you ended up giving birth to him and then left him in that orphanage?" Draco was red with anger by now.

"You honestly think I would leave my son in the hands of some stranger? Alexandra did that!"

"Your stepmother?" he scoffed. "Yeah. Right." His expression turned serious. "Stop dawdling now, you have work. Stay away from my son." With that warning, he left.

Hermione and her crew spent the entire day inside the house, first just coming up with ideas and sketching plans. Throughout the whole time, she was distracted. Her son was here. She felt so happy at the fact that he was growing up with at least one parent but was saddened by the fact that Draco wouldn't let he get involved in her own son's life. She kept wishing that the boy would come down for something or another because she didn't dare go up where Draco was.

"Hermione, are you in there?" she became aware that someone was knocking on the side of her head.

"Stop that, Hannah."

"You seemed lost." Her expression turned excited suddenly. "So how do you like my idea? We paint the whole place in contrasting colours and add matching furniture and curtains. It will give the place quite a nice look, don't you think?"

"I suppose . . . alright. Can I trust you to have the blueprints ready by tomorrow?"

"You bet!" Hannah replied happily.

"One more thing, Hannah. Would you mind if I exclude one of the rooms from that design? It's a nursery and I want to design it myself. It's a new thing that I want to try."

"No problem, Hermione."

"Why does Draco Malfoy want to have a nursery made?" Susan asked.

"He . . I'm not sure." She lied and then quickly went back o their planning. "Also, I think we should add some chandeliers in the dining hall and a few in the . . ."

Two days later, everything had been planned out and the work had been started on the Manor. That day, Draco Malfoy got an urgent business call demanding that he be at the required place immediately.

"I'm going to be gone for the weekend," He was telling Susan, "However, the work should not stop. I want to see some difference when I get back. I may not be supervising you but Anna will be here." Anna was the motherly looking old woman that Hermione had seen on her first day who also happened to be Devon's nanny. "Make sure you do nothing but work. I will be informed otherwise." He said the last part looking directly at Hermione. He left soon after.

The first thing Hermione did was go upstairs to the room where she knew Devon was. She was met with the sight of him sleeping and Anna tidying up the toys on the floor.

"Hello, dear," Anna said. "Did you need something?"

"No thanks. I just came up here to see the room since I'll be designing it. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Well come in then, Hermione. I doubt you will be able to get a good look of the room from standing outside." Hermione stepped inside the large room. "By the way, I'm Anna."

"Nice to meet you, Anna." Hermione started observing the room but her eyes came to rest on the small sleeping form of Devon. "He's quite cute."

Anna followed Hermione's gaze. "Oh, he's more than cute. Gifted with looks and brains. The boy is a genius. He's only read yet he can already read picture books and count till a thousand," She said proudly.

Hermione felt sad by the fact that her child had learned so much without her. She had always imagined it to be her who would have the boy in her lap so that she could read to him and teach him how to read. She was the one who was supposed to make him learn his numbers. "He seems like a brilliant child," was all she said though.

"Brilliant but spoiled. See this room? It's literally stuffed." The room was filled toys of all sizes. "Though I sometimes feel sorry for the boy," Anna continued in a sad tone. "He has never known a mother's love. I may try as heard as I want but I can never achieve the true thing. It won't be long now before he asks the question 'where's my mummy?' or something like that. A few days ago, we were reading and the word mother was mentioned quite a few times so he asked me what that was. I tell you, I had never answered a more difficult question."

"I gather you've known him for a long time now?" Hermione asked after some silence.

"I've known him his whole life. Draco hired me the day he was born because of the absence of the mother. Personally, I think she died in childbirth however I've never seen Draco grieve for anyone."

"Is that so . . ." Hermione vowed to herself that she would bring change into both Draco and Devon's lives. She would be the change. Alexandra was not going to interfere this time.

Starting the next day, Hermione went upstairs as soon as they arrived at the manor leaving the crew to work on the bottom floor. This day, Devon was awake at the moment.

"Hi, Anna," Hermione greeted.

"Hello, Hermione. I was waiting for you to come. Would you be a dear and watch Devon here until I come back. My daughter's gone in labour and is asking that I be there. I hope to be back by evening. If I run late though, could you stay a little overtime?" Anna asked hurriedly.

"I'd love to watch him."

Anna smiled at her looking relieved. "Thank you so much. I'll try and get back as soon as possible. Bye now." She kissed Devon on the head and left.

Now it was just Hermione and Devon. The boy was looking at her curiously. Hermione went forward and crouched down to his eye level. "Hi there," She said smiling. "What's your name?"

He looked at her for a second and then frowned. "You know my name. Anna told you."

Hermione laughed in surprise. Her child was definitely a smart one. "My, aren't you intelligent. And you only three too."

"It was my birthday five days ago," He said proudly.

"I'm sorry I missed it. I guess I'll have to make it up by buying you an extra special gift."

"Is it going to be bigger than Daddy's? He got me a broom!" Devon said excitedly.

How typical of Draco to buy a broom for his son, Hermione thought. "You'll find out soon enough. Now, do you like painting?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then you can help me paint your room." Hermione stood up and took his hand to lead him to the supplies but he wouldn't move.

"I don't even know you," was his explanation.

"Oh, I'm Hermione."

"Big name."

"Really? I always thought so too. So, are we going to paint or not?"

Devon nodded as Hermione led him to the paint boxes. She took out a few brushes, big and small, and opened the lids.

"Why don't you use magic?" Devon asked.

"It's more fun this way." She handed him one of the smaller brushes but then took it back. "Maybe you should change into some old clothes so you don't spoil these ones. Painting can get messy."

"There are my old clothes."

"Alright then." She handed him the paintbrush back and showed him how to move it in even strokes. Devon was a fast learner and was soon painting. Smiling, Hermione also started. They talked in between, mostly about each other likes and dislikes and Hermione got to know him better and better. He was quite a talkative child and interesting too. Soon, lunchtime rolled around and they sat down to the sandwiches and juice which an elf had brought.

It took a one more hour to finish painting the room and both were surprised at how fast it had finished. Then Hermione brought out a catalogue and helped Devon choose a nice new bed and other things for his room. They played together for awhile after that and to Hermione's disappointment, Anna arrived back right on time. She had a huge smile on her face as she announced that her daughter had had a healthy baby girl which they had named Christine. Though she had to leave, she promised the sad boy that she would be back tomorrow and they'd have more fun.

To Hermione, this had been the best day from the past three years. She had finally got to know her son. Now she only hoped that Draco would forgive her and accept what she was telling him and the reason she had done it. That was all that she asked for. She just wanted to be a part of her child's life.

Her happiness was ruined when she got home though. There was an owl from Alexandra for her. It said that her father had passed away due to another heart attack.

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