You guys! I have never had such an amazing reaction to a story before! I can't believe this little idea has more than 100 follows and 20 reviews! I'm seriously speechless!
If you left a review logged in and I haven't replied, I'm so sorry! I was doing so good and then work got a little crazy, but hopefully I'll have some free time tomorrow to write you guys back. It means the world to me that anyone even wants to read something I've written, and I love communicating with every one of you.
There was a guest review that had some issues with the way that I've characterized Hermione, but hopefully this chapter has cleared up anything people may have been wondering.
Okay, now that's all that's out of the way, onward to chapter 2!
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Hermione woke the next morning with a pounding headache and an insatiable need to pee.
Thankfully it was Saturday, so she didn't have to go into the office, though she did have paperwork that she needed to get ahead on if she wanted the next week to be a little less insane. She, of course, could have gone into a better paying department within the Ministry, but she knew her place was in Muggleborn Affairs.
She had been lucky, because her family had been nothing but supportive when she received her Hogwarts letter, but there were plenty young witches and wizards that didn't have it so easy. Just last week a young witch's file had been brought to her desk and when she opened it her heart had felt like it was ripped into two pieces.
She was twelve, and when she had been brought back home after her first year at Hogwarts her family had come to pick her up, only to throw her in their basement and refuse to let her out. When she didn't show up for her second year and no word had been heard from her or her family, they had sent a pair of aurors to investigate. They found the young girl nearly dead and skeletal. When she had gone to visit her at St. Mungo's she had been completely withdrawn and on the edge of death. Thankfully in the past month she had made a nearly complete recovery, and had plans to catch up with her year later on.
Sadly, cases like hers weren't abnormal.
Once her bladder had been relieved she decided to run a bath and have a good soak. She poured a relaxing bubble bath into the water, and stripped down as the tub filled up with water and suds. She hoped that the warm liquid would sooth her aching body and help clear her mind.
As she sat in the cooling water her mind drifted back to the previous night - and what one Draco Malfoy suggested.
She had done some research in the few books she had on blood magic, but there had only been vague mentions of Blood Adoption, and nothing concrete. She had to wait until Malfoy made an appearance, and she really had no idea when he would show.
A few hours later she had finished her bath and had started cleaning her small flat. Malfoy had been right when he said she could barely afford to pay her student debt and rent on her salary, but she didn't regret it. She knew at this vary moment she could walk into the Ministry and ask to be transferred to a more lucrative department and within the week the change would be made. In fact, she got offers to transfer almost weekly, if not at least monthly, but she didn't want to do something for money.
No, she wanted to help people.
But now she was faced with the very real fact that she was pregnant by a man who got married a few days after getting her that way. She also had to face the fact that her flat was too small for a baby and the only way she could get a bigger one was to accept a job offer to work in a department that she didn't want to be in.
Or she could do the unthinkable and marry Draco Malfoy.
She flopped down on her worn couch and leaned her head back. She wouldn't deny that he was an attractive man, nor would she deny that he had changed a lot since the war.
The fact that he was training to be a healer was proof enough of that.
She pulled out the files of parchment and dipped her quill into the ink pot that she kept on her coffee table and began to go over the three files she had brought bike with her.
How long she sat there, she was unsure, but suddenly her fireplace lit up and Draco's head appeared.
"Hey Granger, is it a good time to come through?"
She stared at his head for a while, before shaking hers to clear her mind and telling him that he could go ahead and come through.
She pulled her legs up and tucked them under her as he stepped through the fireplace. He had on a standard white robes of a student healer and it surprised her to see him look so - different.
"Sorry I'm a bit late; we had an emergency last minute and I still had to run home and grab the book the spell is in." He sat down next to her and she had to take a breath to steady herself.
"It's alright, I've had things to keep me occupied."
He pulled out a bag from his robes and from there he brought forth a large tome, with what looked like aged leather as the cover. "Here is the family book the spell is in. I've bookmarked the page, so you should be able to find it easily. Plus, it isn't good for a non Malfoy to go flipping through a family book."
She took it reverently, surprised that he truly was handing over an ancient Malfoy tome. As close as she use to be to the Weasley's, they had still never allowed her to view any of their family books.
She opened the book straight to the page that he had marked and began reading, drinking in every word and wand movement.
It was real. Her baby - Ron's baby - could actually be adopted by blood while still in the womb. He or she would resemble a Malfoy and have all the legal ties to the family.
Hell, Ron wouldn't have any way to claim any rights to the child.
She looked up to see Draco - when did he become Draco in her head? - staring into the flames of the fire. "I don't know if I can do this."
He looked over at her and frowned. "What about it don't you think you can do?"
She sighed, shutting the book. "Well, first off you've hated me ever since you met me. Second, even if you blood adopt my baby, he or she still won't be a pureblood. And lastly, what would happen if Ron ever found out? He would be devastated knowing he had a child, but held no claim."
He studied her for a moment. "I don't hate you, and it was never you that I hated anyways; it was simply that everything you represented was something I had been told I should hate. Secondly, I don't give two shits if my child is a pureblood; magic is magic. And lastly, after everything he's done, do you really think he as any right to your child? He made his choice, very publicly I may add, so do you really think he would ever try to claim any child he had with you?"
She froze at his words, not knowing which bombshell he dropped to focus on first. She knew, deep down, that he didn't hate her though it was odd to hear him vocalize it. She also knew that Ron wouldn't want anything to do with this baby, he had made that clear when he chose Lavender over her. She had gone to him the day before he wed to try and tell him, but he had adamantly said that he chose Lavender and she was the one he wanted to start a family with - not her. It broke her heart, but she had decided to at least tell him about the baby, until he announced that his wife was pregnant, all the while pointedly ignoring her.
He had made his decision, and she wasn't it.
Then there was the fact that he didn't care if his child was a pureblood.
"Granger, can I ask you something? And will you be honest?"
She snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at the blond man. "Might as well, if - and I mean IF - I go along with this you'll end up knowing a lot anyways."
"Why did you allow yourself to become the other woman?"
"Because at first I wasn't." It's something no one knew, because they had chosen to keep it a secret.
Or, she thought they both had.
"What do you mean by that?" He had sat up, elbows resting in his thighs.
"After the war ended Ron and I 'got together'. We never told anyone because we didn't want the questions or the media to get ahold of the story. I left for school and he went into auror training, so he would just visit me off and on. After I finished and came back I thought we would start telling people, but he never wanted to even talk about that topic. Seven months ago the first picture of him with Lavender was printed and I exploded on him. I broke it off, but stupidly allowed him to come and see me two months ago - and that's how I got where I am now." It felt good to get it all off her chest, and she settled back into the couch, much more comfortable than before.
Draco sat next to her in silence, in shock she supposed.
"So let me get this straight. You've been with him since the end the war, and he leaves you for the blond bimbo, and you take him back one more time? Why would you sell yourself so short?" He looked over at her like she had two heads, and she supposed a lot of other people would be looking at her the same way.
"I loved him for years, Malfoy, and I had a moment of sheer stupidity which I am now paying the consequences for."
He looked at her for a long while, before sitting back and crossing his ankles. "I think I can understand."
She furrowed her brows. "Really?"
"Yes, really. My mother followed my father even when he joined the Dark Lord for the second time, so I know a thing or two about the things people who are in love do."
"Look, let me just get this out while we're having some truth time - why are you doing this? Why would you want to marry me and go through a blood adoption for a child that you haven't even met?" There wasn't any use in going forward until she knew his real motives.
"My family name is shit, my mother is a wreak because of it, and my father drinks himself into a stupor most nights to drown out the nightmares. I thought I could show society that we aren't who my father was, but so far it hasn't worked." He sat up and turned so that he was facing her. "I hadn't planned on even talking to you until I saw you getting sick in the bushes, but then I realized that we could help each other out - you can stay in the low paying department you seem to love so much, and I can elevate my family's name."
He took a deep breathe and reached for one of her hands that had been resting on her lap. "Grang- Hermione, will you do the honor of being my wife? To allow me to adopt the child still in your womb and raise he or she as my own? Will you allow me to offer yo the comforts the Malfoy money can buy, and in return will you help bring respect back to the family name?"
She sat in shock, not expecting him to actually ask her in that way, at this very moment.
Part of her was screaming to say no, to jerk her hand away and tell him she didn't need his help. But the other part, screaming louder than the first voice, told her to trust him, to help him and allow him to help her. It told her she could help so many more muggleborns this way and that her child would never want for anything.
Could she really make a life altering decision in the span of twenty four hours?
She gripped the hand that held hers, looking up to meet Draco's icy gaze. "I will."
Somehow she found herself in the man's arms, with him muttering 'thank you' over and over. Maybe this was the most idiotic decision she had ever made, but in that moment she felt more secure than she had in a very long time.