Draco inhaled a deep breath as he knocked on Harry Potter's door. He shivered into the fur coat that he wore, trying to protect his face from the chilly, winter breeze.

"Malfoy," Harry addressed when he opened the door, surprised to see the blond standing on his door step. "Everything alright?"

"Potter, I apologise for bothering you at this hour, but I really need Granger's address."

Harry lifted up an eyebrow. Curiosity clung to his face, but he motioned Draco inside without questioning him. There was a desk near the door, and he opened the drawer to it, pulling out a pen and a piece of paper. "I saw you and Darlene had another row this afternoon."

Being an auror, Harry was occasionally hired to ensure the games didn't get too out of hand. He especially enjoyed this because he'd get to watch a lot of the quidditch matches while getting paid to do so. He and Draco had met up a few times over the years, and while they weren't exactly friends, the two wizards got along alright.

Draco rolled his eyes. "She insulted me, so naturally I had to insult her back. You know how she is."

"I'm surprised you haven't shagged her already."

Draco snorted. "We've hooked up. Once."

Harry paused his writing of Hermione's address to gape at Draco. "Really?"

"Well don't look surprised! She came on to me ! I'm irresistible, after all!"

Harry shook his head, chuckling. He folded up the paper and held it out to Draco. "May I ask your interest in Hermione after all these years? Looking to rekindle something?"

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. It'll be in tomorrow's Evening Prophet, I'd wager." He then thanked Harry and bid him goodbye, hiding a smirk. Harry was dying for more details involving his childhood friend.

"Draco Malfoy," Hermione sang out when she answered her door. A smile spread across her lips. "What brings the only male Hollyhead Harpies player to my doorstep?"

Obviously Draco and Hermione once had a history. After his ugly divorce with Astoria, Hermione and Draco dated for a few months, but Hermione ended the relationship abruptly, stating that she didn't want to dampen his quidditch career, which had taken a lot of Draco's time.

Perhaps it was for another reason though.

"You need to invite me inside," Draco stated firmly. He was calm. It was best to address the situation rationally, and he would try to remain that way.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "If you're looking to score, I'm not interested."

"Noted. Now let me in."

Hermione tilted her head. "Why for?" she asked him, suspicion hanging in her tone.

Draco dug his hands deeper into his pockets. "Because it's bloody well freezing out here, and we need to talk!"

"About what?" Hermione planted her hands to her hips, becoming impatient with him.

"Oh, I don't know," Draco started off sarcastically, "Let's talk about the time you gave birth to my daughter, didn't tell me about her existence, and then put her up for adoption! How's that sound?"

Hermione's face deadpanned. Her lips twitched a bit before she silently stepped back from the doorway and gestured him inside.

Hermione's home was tiny. Cozy , but tiny. She could afford more, but she wasn't a big spender. When they were dating, Draco's extravagant spending drove her mad. She'd go into lectures of how many people (children especially) went hungry, but Draco never felt guilty because he was born rich. Sure, Draco knew he was lucky to have what he had, but it was not his fault that some people were poor.

Draco watched as Hermione fumbled around in the kitchen that was adjacent to the living room that she had directed him to sit in. From his place at the sofa, he could see her hands tremble slightly as she busied herself with making tea.

"Tea?" she asked when she was finished, having quickened the task with her magic. Her voice was several notches higher than normal.

"Yes, please. No sugar."

She placed several festive-looking biscuits onto a bright red platter, and Draco nearly licked his lips in anticipation of sinking his teeth into one of the sweets. Hermione made some fantastic biscuits. Some of the best he had ever had.

When she set a tray down in front of him on a coffee table, he made no hesitation to snatch a biscuit from the platter and take a delicate bite from it. He closed his eyes, savoring its sweet, buttery flavour. It brought back memories. Memories of her. Memories of them.

"Draco!"

"OUCH! Damn it, Hermione, you didn't have to smack me!" Draco massaged his sore hand from her whacking of it with a wooden spoon.

"You'll make yourself sick eating raw dough!"

"I'll have you know that I've been eating biscuit dough since before I was even out of my nappies, and I've never been sick from it!" He snatched the beater out of the bowl and proceeded to lick the metal clean, grinning as she tapped her foot at him in a chatise.

"I'm sure that I can find a better use for that tongue of yours, Draco" she said with a raise of her eyebrows, causing him to choke on a swallow. It surprised him how naturally she slipped that one out.

"How did you find out?"

"No," he started sternly. "You will answer my questions first."

Hermione took a sip of her tea with a thoughtful frown. She put the teacup down and settled into an armchair, tucking her feet underneath her. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

Draco inhaled a slow, deep breath. His pulse was picking up, but he wanted to remain calm. He was angry, yes, but Hermione wouldn't say a damn thing if he yelled at her. Even if he was justified.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant?"

"When Astoria won custody of Scorpius, you didn't seem too upset by it. You just got accepted into the quidditch league, and it appeared to me that you didn't really want to play the father role. Or a lover..."

Draco's chest ached. What she said wasn't true in the slightest. He had wanted custody for Scorpius! Oh, it nearly killed him when he learned that he'd only get to see his son once a week! Astoria had spent more time with Scorpius though, and the mother and son had a stronger bond than Draco did with Scorpius. It was only fair that Scorpius live with his mother. Draco wasn't going to harm his child's wellbeing for his own selfish reasons.

"Quidditch distracted me from the loss I had in my life. The divorce was a horrid one, as you well know from the popperozzi rumours. Our marriage was an arranged one, and canceling out a contract between Pureblood ties is an absolute nightmare. It devastated me to give up my son, but I couldn't separate him from his mother."

"You never explained your feelings to me. It was like your personal life didn't even exist."

"I didn't feel it was necessary to our relationship."

"I know."

"I needed distractions."

"Which I provided. Until you become famous." Her eyes narrowed at him in accusation.

"Wait, how did this conversation get twisted in my direction? I'm not the one who hid a baby from her father ."

She lifted her chin up. "I felt your distractions were more important to you. I wasn't ready to raise a family, and you enjoyed the fame just a bit too much. You weren't at all interested in raising a baby on your own."

"And it was wrong of you to make that decision for me!" Draco snapped out, slightly losing his calm demeanor. He took another deep breath, vowing not to lose his temper.

She nodded. "Perhaps it was, but I did it anyway. There's nothing I can do to change that. I do see how it has deeply affected you, and I apologise for my quick judgement. Would you have raised the baby on your own though?"

"Would you have allowed me to do it on my own? Could you have just ignored that a baby and I even existed? Do you actually believe you would have ignored her existence after dropping her off on me?"

Her eyes shifted down to her cup of tea. She leaned forward to take it into her hands and sip at it. "Maybe that's what I was afraid of," she confessed with a whisper.

"What?" he asked, somewhat confused by what she meant. "What were you afraid of?"

She smiled, though there was no amusement in her expression. She looked hollow. Blank. "Commitment. You were the first decent relationship I ever had, and I knew that it shouldn't be my last. I wasn't ready to settle. A baby would have forced you to think that we would need to settle for each other. You had just renounced a forced marriage, Draco. I didn't want you to believe that you needed to enter into another."

Her words packed a powerful punch, and they were absolutely true. Draco would have certainly wanted to marry Hermione if he had known that she had been carrying his child, and given how he was back ten years ago, it wouldn't have lasted. Their relationship would have been messier than Draco's first marriage, simply because he had strong feelings for Hermione Granger. He had cared for her, as both a lover and a friend.

He nodded. Draco didn't have to like it, but he understood her reasoning. If he had been in Hermione's position, he probably wouldn't have done anything differently than she had.

"I chose a grand pair of candidates for her, Draco. She's going to have the best life she could ever have."

"It's just too bad her adoptive parents disappeared."

Hermione gaped at the mouth. "Oh, no! Wait, is she okay?!" Hermione's face turned a green colour.

"She's fine," Draco assured her softly. "She found me through our blood ties-- inherited your brains, no doubt. Merlin, her sarcasm can put me up for a run of my money though!"

"She found you?"

"Yes."

"So where is she now? If her parents are missing?"

"At my Manor. Scorpius is watching her for me."

Hermione leaped up from the armchair, and she hurried to the door where a coat rack stood, pulling her coat from it. "Take me to her!"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to see the daughter who you didn't even want to raise in the first place?"

"Hey, I have my regrets, Draco! There's not a day that goes by in which I don't think about her! Now, please , would you take me to my daughter?"

Draco stood from the sofa. "Of course. Let's just hope she's just as understanding as I am of you adopting her out."