Disclaimer: I own nothing, but my thoughts of AU and OC, the rest all belong to J K Rowling.

Chapter 28

Throughout the quiet dinner, Narcissa Malfoy had been watching her only son, methodically cutting down his meal into precise bite pieces and eating them one by one. She knew her son well. As a child, Draco was quite an attention seeker. Though Lucius never cared much, she knew her boy had been starving for his father's affection for most parts of his life.

Making Severus Snape, his godfather was Narcissa's idea, though the reason she had given to Lucius was a different one. Her husband wanted power, wanted wealth and fame, but his mind was perverse enough to make the waters of the Thames river bleed red. The wife told her husband, Snape's allegiance to the family will give it his protection. Lucius was aware of the potion master's magical prowess. In truth, Narcissa had tried hard to give her only son a version of a fatherly figure. Even miserable potions master of Hogwarts could have managed to be one for her sulking son, a role his own father was reluctant to play.

The Malfoy matriarch broke her silence while dessert was being served.

"The Minister's Head Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt came by, while you were away."

Putting cutlery down, wiping his lips, Draco looked up with interest.

"The ministry has reduced the period of my house arrest. They have considered my philanthropic gestures, regarding the orphans of war and have pardoned me. But they have assigned me with a project, whose details they are going to send me in two days' time. Though unofficially, Kingsley had been kind enough to abreast me with the information that I was to help Severus, your godfather in his forthcoming activities."

Nodding his acknowledgment, he went back to eating his meal.

"Draco, I know, I have known for quite a long time, that you have feelings for Miss Granger…A mother knows son. And I, deep down, never thought against it, but our beliefs stood in the way. I know how acutely you love her, and I am proud of you for that. Because you might have the chance to get something, I could never get. The world will call you both star-crossed lovers if she reciprocates your feelings. And I have seen them myself, and Draco, not all lovers are doomed, but beliefs have stood on their way…give yourself a chance to redeem, if you truly love her, be there for her, she is a powerful witch, and all she might need is someone to show her, she is loved and wanted for, you just have to believe in that each time you question your affection- 'How do I love Thee…?" the answer lies in "If thou must love me'."

"Mother!" Draco snapped his head up.

"What…?" Alarmed Narcissa looked at him.

In two steps, he had crossed the table and was sitting at the foot of his mother, "What, how... where did you come across that… Mother, please, tell me, this is important for me to know. Please, mother…"

Fumbling into his robes, he brought out the letter and holding the parchment open in front of his mother he had pleaded, "Mother, please, these lines, you just said these lines, Hermione…she had left this for me, I got them today…mother please…if these are clues she has left behind, which I can understand and maybe eventually help her…Mother, where…where are you going…"

Narcissa was astounded, It's the same letter, but in different penmanship.

She left the room in a hurry with Draco chasing after her. She had gone into her bedroom. Panting and unsure of his mother's frantic behavior, he decided to wait at the threshold. She was desperately looking for something in the concealed partition of her dresser, and after an uncharacteristic huff, she brought out an aged parchment with a white ribbon tied around it.

Her hand shook as she brought it close to the magically burning candles on the dresser. She turned to her son and signaled him to come into the room.

"Mother…what is…?"

Shaking her head, swallowing a couple of times, the woman simply handed over the ribbon tied parchment to him.

"Open it."

Uncertain and curious, Draco opened it. He couldn't believe his eyes. The same lines were written over the old parchment but the handwriting was different. And a sage leaf was drawn on top of it and a lilac flower below it.

"What a shame! Potter's mother, your father was obsessed with her. He wanted to enslave her, mug…muggleborn and brightest," then pointing at the letter she continued, "I had found him stroking that letter, smelling it…disgusting…I couldn't let him continue, I don't know from where he had found it…but I had heard him whisper her name again and again, while he held that letter to his chest."

"When I was pregnant you, I already had three miscarriages, I couldn't let him continue, had stolen it from his study. I wanted to burn it, but thought better I guess, instead, I had locked it away, "smiling to herself, "Sage and Lilac, why did it never occur to me…it was all before my own eyes. Both of them. They were friends from the very start. Why did it never cross my mind, that they could never stick to being friends, one day they would cross that threshold and mean more to each other."

The young man kept on staring at his now weeping mother. Her eyes still gazing at the flickering candle flames.

She whispered, "Oh! Such love, such pure love! Such unending love. All this time, only her, always her. The subtle brushes of fingers, the soft whispers when they would cross each other in between the library bookshelves… They had given each other nicknames, Sage and Lilac."

Draco was desperate. he could not have let his mother sound so dazed, like a woman losing her mind. He shouted on top of his voice, "WHO, WHO! WHOSE LOVE?!"

Jolted out of her reveries, she turned to her son, overwhelmed, "Why Severus's and of course Lily's. Sev was lily's Sage and Lily was Sev's lilac. I had heard them whisper these two words to each other often…soft and tender…James Potter could never have loved her; the way Snape has."

Her son dumbly flopped down on her bed. The ribbon and the letter held in his hand. His eye roving, his jaws clicking. Then he stood up at once… His eyes were burning with renewed purpose and determination. As if he had finally come up to the epiphany, "And...she wanted me to become his ideal godson and I know Mother I truly can be one!"

Narcissa still overwhelmed wondered, "Who wanted you…Draco, who are you talking about?"

But the new Malfoy head of the family could hardly wait. He had already made out of the room, but turned back at the edge of the threshold and triumphantly declared, "Miss Hermione Granger."

A/N: Next chapter- the BIG BANG REVEAL. The bane of my waking hours. I have lost sleep over it. URGH! And I always thought, people who handled the money flow, were sharper than they would let the world believe.