Chapter 6: Draco's Birthday

"Draco Malfoy, distraught and depressed over his wife's death, had a breakthrough for Wizard and Muggle Medicine. Unfortunately, Malfoy's breakthrough was six months too late to save his wife from her untimely passing." I read the article's title aloud to my mother as we sat down for breakfast. I folded The Daily Prophet back up and tossed it to the table.

"I suppose it is not as bad as it could have been." I remarked. I had been worried with that woman, Rita, at the helm of the story.

My mother picked up The Daily Prophet and began perusing through the other articles there within. As per usual, I started thinking about Hermione again. Looking down at my plate, I thought about the previous year on my birthday. Hermione and I each year on our birthdays would make each other breakfast in bed. It was a tradition we'd been doing since we first got together.

I sat up in bed when I heard Hermione climbing up the stairs. It was my birthday and she had gotten up early to make breakfast for us in bed. As she opened up the door, I smiled. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and she was wearing my pajamas.

"Good Morning Handsome." Hermione said as she placed the tray on the bed, and leaned to give me a kiss.

I looked down at the tray. She had gone all out. Muffins, Cinnamon Rolls, Sausages, Pancakes, Fruit and my favorite, bacon.

"This all looks so good Hermione!" I said. Then I noticed something. "Why is there only one mimosa? We always have mimosa's on our birthdays!"

"Well…" Hermione started wringing her hands and sat on the bed. "I wanted to wait before telling you, because….because."

"Are you pregnant!" I happily exclaimed. We'd been trying to conceive for a while, with no success. She'd had a few miscarriages, and it's really been hard on her.

Hermione smiled shyly. "Yes." she whispered. She was glowing. "I'm 3 months along, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I was just so worried I'd have another miscarriage that I-"

I leaned forward and kissed her. "I love you so much Hermione. We're going to have a baby!"

I heard a snapping noise, which broke me free of my reverie. My mother was trying to get my attention.

"Draco? Are you okay?" My mother asked. I nodded and started eating, still thinking about Hermione.

When I was finished I went upstairs to see if the girls were awake and ready for breakfast. As I walked in, both girls were awake. As I picked Ivy up to change her, I noticed she kept looking at the window. I looked over to Vera, and she was looking at the window as well. I always thought it odd that they would stare off at something, when nothing was there.

It wasn't just they would stare off at something though, they would often smile and giggle. What could they be looking at? Curiously, I went by the window to see if I could find something. A bird outside the window possibly? But like every other time, there was nothing there.

I'm sure that this was just a thing that babies did. But I always wondered what they could possibly be looking at. If only I could see what they saw.

Work was pretty much uneventful. We didn't have any projects lined up after the last one. Mostly I sorted through the paperwork with St. Mungos, to make sure everything was set in order. As I did so, I had pondered on what I should do next. They've always allowed me to do whatever project I want. It's been so long that I've been working on the Perfect Medicine, I wasn't really sure what to work on next.

Albert walked into my office. He'd managed to stay for the week in the London Office since our interview was yesterday. He was invited to the dinner tonight, and so we had planned on heading to the manor together.

"Are you ready?" He asked, placing a briefcase on the chair in front of me.

"Almost, just sorting this paperwork, and then we can go."

"Do you have any ideas for your next project?" Albert said as he started shuffling some things on my desk.

"No, not really. I'll think about it." I responded, placing down the file I had in my hands.

Albert nodded. I'm not sure he knew what he was going to do either. Even though he was at the main office, a lot of his work revolved around The Perfect Medicine as well.

"Let's go." I said as I reached for my briefcase and walked out the door.

As Albert and I walked in, many of my friends and family were already there. Blaise, Harry and Ron were conversing over by the window, while all the women and children were sitting on the floor playing with Ivy and Vera. It looked like we had a full house tonight. Luna seemed the odd one out. I could see her in the other room with my mother.

Albert started walking over to Blaise, Harry and Ron. I followed suit.

"Happy Birthday man!" Blaise said as I came closer. He gripped my arm in a handshake and pulled me into a half-hug. Harry and Ron nodded towards me and wished me happy birthday as well.

We started discussing weekend and summer plans. Harry, Ginny and their kids were going on vacation next week to Ireland-part of Harry's job. Blaise and Pansy were also going away to Ireland, but that was for their wedding anniversary. Ron just shrugged and said they weren't doing much until the baby was born. Albert and Dahlia were staying in London for another week and then heading back to Egypt. I didn't have any plans. The girls were too young to do anything anyway.

My mother called us all over so that we could get dinner started. The houselves had created a feast of different meats and veggies. Everyone dug in. Luna was on my left, and my mother was on my right. As I ate, Luna kept looking over at me.

Eventually, I asked her how she was doing.

"Oh, oh I'm fine. Just pregnant." She smiled. "You know, pregnant women are closer to the veil, and so they have some very compelling dreams."

I looked at Luna quizzically. "Oh? What kinda of dreams have you been having?"

"I saw Hermione."

I put down my fork. "Luna, I see Hermione in my dreams every night."

Ron decided to enter the conversation. "Luna, tell him what happened in your dream."

Everyone stopped eating as Ron's voice carried across the table. Everyone patiently waited for Luna to tell her story.

"Well, it wasn't really a dream. It was more like Hermione visited me in my dream. I couldn't really understand her. But she was very sad. It looked like she was writing something, but I woke up before she could show me."

"I bet it was her." Ron remarked. "She was always writing something. Or reading."

"It was probably just an odd dream." I said. I wasn't really sure I wanted to listen to this nonsense. Luna looked hurt.

"If only Harry hadn't dropped that stone." Ron said.

"Ron, I was walking to my grave. " I wasn't sure what Harry thought about Luna's 'dream.' He seemed skeptical like I did.

"What stone?" I asked. I vaguely remember Hermione telling me something about a stone that would let you see the dead.

"It doesn't matter Draco," Harry said, "It can't bring her back. Nothing can bring her back. I'm sorry."

"But if we could just talk to her." Ron said to Harry. "If we could just go back to the Forbidden Forest and retrieve it. We could all see her again. We could say goodbye."

Ginny cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Ron "I don't see a point in thinking that way. Like Harry said, it wouldn't bring her back. It'd just be a mirage."

Ron looked defeated. Luna looked stressed for even bringing it up. I think she was just telling me to comfort me. Everyone else didn't know what to say. So instead, we all turned back to our dinner.

I couldn't sleep. "It wouldn't bring her back. It wouldn't bring her back" I couldn't stop thinking about Ginny and Harry's words. What if it could bring her back?

I tried remembering what Hermione had told me about the stone. I'd had a feeling Hermione doubted it's 'powers' as well. But if Harry had seen them... what if I could fix it? I am an alchemist. I just created the bloody Perfect Medicine. I'm sure I could create the resurrection stone, or at least something similar.

I sat up from the bed and walked over to Hermione's bookcase. I bet she had something here about it.

As I looked through Hermione's books, I became frustrated. This is ridiculous. Harry and Ginny were right. This couldn't bring her back.

Irritated with myself, I went back to bed.