She lingered a little longer than usual in bed the next morning when she awoke, the memories of the night before flooding into her mind. Growling low in her throat she stayed frozen to the spot. She didn't want to get out of bed and face the world. She didn't want to crawl from the bed and face Ronald when she walked into work. She didn't want to have to pen a letter to the Daily Prophet outlining the dissolvement of her marriage. Of course, she would lie and say they amicably came to the end of their marriage just to save face.

She glanced to the photos that were sitting on the floor and the chair. Closing her eyes, she rolled over in the bed tangling herself in the sheet and fished around on the floor for her wand. Grasping it between her fingers she aimed it at the pile as it alighted in blue flames and fizzled out into a pile of ash. Years of memories and happiness reduced to a smouldering pile on the floor. That was that taken care of. Memories gone. Well, not the ones in her head but the ones that haunted her home and bedroom were at least gone. Now she just had to live with the constant reminder as she trawled the halls of the ministry daily and passed him. And now she knew what he had done to her and threw in the second stabbing blow that he was going to be a father she didn't even think she could look at him let alone offer him the curt nod of late.

"Why are you still in bed?" A soft female voice rang through her bedroom, pulling her from her sour thoughts, only groaning in response not even opening her eyes.

"Because, Susan, I am thinking of sleeping the day away and pretending the train wreck that is my life hasn't derailed in spectacular style. It was somewhere between misery station and self-pity station before it derailed. If I stay in here, at least I can forget all of that for a while," she mumbled, her voice muffled against the pillow pitifully.

Susan walked quickly across the wooden floors, high heels clicking on the lacquered wood. The thin, blonde woman worked the curtains of Hermione's bedroom open allowing the light to flood the room.

Hermione had hired Susan Bones as her personal assistant around a year ago when her life began to get so hectic she couldn't even remember to eat most of the time. Quickly she became one of Hermione's best friends who she confided everything in. Of course, a woman that hung off your every word and orchestrated your whole life was generally one you could trust and confide in. Honestly, right now she was one of the only people she could trust. But of course, she expected no less from a Hufflepuff.

"Are you naked under there you godless heathen?" Susan joked as she swept across the room to the closet and pulled out a fresh shirt and skirt for Hermione and laid them down gently on the foot of the bed. "Who did you have over last night?"

"Someone tall, dark and handsome." She threw a pillow playfully across the room. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Because you told me that if you are not in the office by eight-thirty then I should come and find you and drag you out of bed as you wallow in your own self-pity." Arms folded tightly across her chest a single foot tapped softly on the floor.

"Actually, about that. Can you draft me a letter outlining that Ronald and myself have chosen to amicably dissolve our marriage due to a relationship breakdown and conflict of interests and I am here on to be addressed as Minister Granger." Teeth gritted tightly together she looked out the now uncovered window. The soft sound of the traffic below forcing its way through a single-window that was cracked just enough to let some air through.

"Ok. Let them all know you are divorcing him because he is a cheating troglodyte, got it, I'll do that today and have it ready for you to approve. Now pull yourself out of that pity party and I will see you back at your office later today."

"If only you could write that." Hermione sighed forlornly still looking out of the window, watching a lone cloud float past without a care and she wondered if she could join it and leave this place for a while. Some days she hated being the Minister. Well, she didn't hate the job itself, but she hated the title. She hated having to remain civil in the face of adversary. Deep down she wanted to destroy Ron and his happiness because it was a bitter pill to swallow what he had done to her but at the same time, it wasn't always the best way to approve a situation when you were the Minister. She must remember that revenge is a dish best served cold.

"Come sit here, Susan." Hermione tapped a spot on the bed gently with the palm of her hand

Susan looked down at the bed critically. "You're naked under there though…" She trailed off.

"Susan. I am naked under my clothes too, but you sit next to me when I am wearing those."

Heat crept into the woman's cheeks as she sat down beside Hermione awkwardly perching precariously on the edge of the bed.

"I found out Ronald had been slipping me a contraceptive potion since I've been trying for a baby, last night when he came around. I.." she sucked in a deep shuddered breath. "I don't know what to do. Do I keep it quiet and pretend it never happened or do I drag him before the courts for what he did which was clearly very illegal and morally wrong and have every intimate detail of my marriage breakdown broadcasted everywhere and be the talk of the town or do I let it slide and turn a blind eye?" She sighed sadly running a hand through the tangled mass of curls that cursed her head.

"Well, I'm not sure, only you can work out what you want to do in that situation, Hermione. I'm sorry he did that to you it's abhorrent and-" She was cut off by Hermione.

"Oh wait, I forgot one more thing." She sat bolt upright clutching the sheet tightly around her naked body. "His little life-ruining girlfriend is pregnant."

"I didn't think this story could get any worse and then you drop that on me. Is that all you have to tell me or is there something else so untoward I probably wouldn't believe it." Lips pursed she looked critically at the other woman.

"Well. I don't think you would believe me if I told you." She shifted awkwardly in the bed.

"Try me." Susan countered narrowing her eyes just so. Surely there couldn't be anything else.

"Isleptwithluciusmalfoylastnight," She blurted out so fast it sounded like one illegible mashed together word.

"You what with what?" An eyebrow raised in question at the mess of words she had just spat at her violently and scarily.

She rolled her eyes. I-Slept-with-Lucius-Malfoy and he and I agreed to procreate and bring a child into this world together," She spoke clearly and articulately annunciating every word as it should be.

Silence.

"Well. That's certainly a lot of words for my brain to take in, filter and process." Her jaw tightened. What a PR disaster this would be if it got out into the wide world right about now.

"Indeed." Hermione agreed.

"I. It. I. Nope. I've got nothing. Lucius Malfoy? Of all the wizards in the entire world, you choose that one. And at the worst time possible I may add. If word of this gets out before your divorce is finalised it will be a nightmare. Lucius Malfoy. Really? Honestly? Usually, you are a great judge and place yourself in only desirable situations and now you decide to procreate on a whim with a Malfoy?"

"Yes. Really. It was just convenient at the time I suppose. He was there. I was there. We both want the same end result and no strings attached."

"Mmm. Right. And have you signed a contract to ensure that he is going to hold onto his word? How do you know he isn't going to pluck the child from your arms and run off? He is a Malfoy and their word means very little from what I have seen. He's a Slytherin for a reason Hermione and isn't to be trusted."

She sniffed indignantly. "Yeah, well, Ron was a Gryffindor and look how that panned out. Nothing but a slippery, cunning little liar. What's the point of a contract honestly? I basically had one with Ronald and how did that pan out?" she flicked her hair off her bare shoulder. "I promise to love you till death do us part", she growled in a high mock falsetto.

"Fair point but I think a contract would be a wise decision. You are entering into unchartered territory and you are playing for more than just a few words and a promise of being together forever. This is the life of a child. The life of a baby you have wanted for so long. How do you know Lucius will let you raise the child the way you want. It will be a Malfoy and you can bet your last galleon that he will want it raised the Malfoy way. Not only that what if you develop feelings for him? What if-"

"We already made a pact not to catch feelings Susan so that already is taken care of thank you very much." She folded her arms across her chest smugly.

"Yeah. Right. And that will ensure without a doubt you will never ever in a million years catch feelings with the man you plan on sleeping with multiple times and falling pregnant too. Mmmhmm I believe you one hundred percent, Hermione. We aren't going to take basic science into the equation that says when you sleep with someone your body releases oxytocin and basically attracts you to the person you are sleeping but yep mmhmm I believe you when you say you won't catch feelings. I'll see you in the office." She stood, smoothing her hands over her skirt and left Hermione to her own devices.

o-o-o-o-o

Lucius Malfoy awoke and stretched his arms high in the air, his spine rhythmically clicking into place gently. Well, that was an awkward but satisfying turn of events last night with Hermione Granger.

He sighed forlornly. The large bed he slept in empty and cold just like his life. That was probably half of the reason he had agreed to sleep with the woman, ways and means to fill the desolate void within him. It was lonely in a large house, the empty halls echoed more than usual lately he was certain. As much as he liked his own company sometimes he needed interaction with another human being to fill the small void in his life.

But the thing that bothered and unsettled him the most was his fortune falling into the hands of someone not even related by blood. That irked him the most and thus made him choose to sleep with Hermione and try to bring a child into the world. Usually, he wouldn't be desperate enough to fornicate with a half-blood and it was unheard of to do so with a Mudblood let alone agree to bring a child into the world with her, but he was desperate. Never in the history of Malfoys had anyone ever reproduced with a half blood, and never, ever in ten million years would anyone think a Malfoy would be scraping the bottom of the gene pool, but here he was dragging the Malfoy name down in desperation as he clung feverishly to the sanctity of the name.

Perhaps a contract would be in order, actually. What if she decided she wanted a claim to the Malfoy fortune by ways and means of sleeping with him? He didn't care about the child, she could raise that how she wanted but she wasn't sinking her fangs into his fortune, not now and not ever. No. He would have to sit her down and talk about a contract tonight and lay it all out on the table with what each would take away from their union before they took this any further. It was one thing to lose his fortune to a stranger but another to lose it to Hermione Granger.

A/N: Just a filler chapter to build the story a little more.

-Aliasmel1