Still I Look to Find a Reason to Believe
Chapter Twenty
Nearly a week had past since that night. That night that the order had won the struggle. The night the slaves of the death eaters and the muggles were saved. The night that many had died on, but the night that Amber Rose Granger had been born on.
Ever since that night, Hermione had been placed in Jean's Hospital. She had remained there, with Amber, to make sure that everything was fine, and until her house was repaired, and the wizarding world was able to function right. Only six days had passed by since that night, but to Hermione, it seemed like nearly a century. Being stuck in the hospital, with Dakota and her new born daughter, drove Hermione crazy. Although, Hermione loved her daughters, Dakota didn't know how to shut up, and by the time the baby started crying, Hermione already had a migraine.
It didn't help that Hermione had her own problems to think about. She couldn't help but thinking about Draco, what he had said right before he left. Hermione wondered, before she went to bed, when she woke up, when she was feeding the baby, when she was pretending to listen to Dakota talk about animals talking, if what Draco said was true. He even kept her asleep at night. The truth was she didn't want to believe it. She knew that part was true. What she didn't know, and couldn't believe was that Draco, despite the way he treated her, maybe was good.
She wasn't even thinking about life before. How it was when her and Draco were still teenagers. She had forgiven him for that. But the way he had treated her only a week before… That was something Hermione wasn't sure she would ever be able to forgive. 'Was he sick? Sick in the head?' Hermione found herself asking that question a lot. The thing that triggered that thought to even errupt in her mind was the way he had acted. The two were fine. He played with Draco, he seemed happy with her and Hermione, but then that night, and even the few days before, he changed. He snapped. How does a thing like that happen? It seemed impossible for Hermione to make any sense out of the matter. There was no reason at all for Draco to be like that. No reason at all.
Another thing Hermione couldn't stop thinking about was how willing Draco had been to give her up to the Dark Lord. No matter what he said before he gave her up. He still hurt her, took her from her home, hurt Dakota, and brought her in front of the Dark Lord, with, what seemed like, no regret or remorse. This thought always made Hermione hate him. He hurt her, both physically and emotionally. He hurt her in a way that no words could fix. Nothing could change her mind on how she felt about him now.
Except for the last words he said to her… "I may have made mistakes in my life and done things I shouldn't have, but I am not evil, Hermione. No matter what you want to believe. Or what you tell them girls about me when they ask where there father is. Don't tell them I didn't want them. Don't tell them I was evil. Tell them the truth. You know the truth, Hermione. You just don't want to believe it." His words… They did not do anything, but echo in her head over and over again. Those same words that were simply meaningless phrases to Hermione when he first said them, now seemed like an endless twister around her heart. She couldn't under stand it. Did Draco care? He certainly seemed to at that very moment, but he was a good actor. She had learned that the hard way. However, despite how she felt about him, and what he did to her and Dakota, she didn't know if his words were true to his heart. That is, if he has one.
Hermione was asleep, finally, for nearly an hour, until Dakota woke her up. Hermione opened her eyes to see nothing but the moonlight from the dark sky outside the hospital room creep across her room, and, of course, the face of her daughter, who was now pulling at her mother, to get her attention. "Mummy," Dakota said, not asking, but pleading. She repeated it, when Hemrione didn't respond. This time Hermione did. "What's the matter, sweet heart?" Hermione asked her. "My heart hurts." Dakota told her mother, taking her right hand and placing it against the center of her chest. "What do you mean your heart hurts?" Hermione asked, waking up slightly more, and actually focusing in on her daughter. Dakota said nothing, but she looked down. She was on her knees in the hospital bed, next to Hermione. Hermione sat up, and pulled Dakota on to her lap, and cradled her. "Dakota," Hermione said, in a soft voice, "what's the matter? Why does my baby's heart hurt?" Hermione began to rock Dakota, slightly back and forth. It hurt Hermione to hear that kind of expression come from her child's mouth. She knew it wasn't a physical thing because Dakota would have been screaming non stop because of it. No, it was an emotional thing, and what ever it was, it was hurting her, like her mother was hurting. Dakota sniffled a bit, wiped her eyes, and looked up at Hermione, leaning her head against Hermione's chest before saying, "I don't think my Daddy's ever coming back."
Hermione's heart sunk down to her stomach. She was at a lost for words. Dakota was too young to understand what was going on, wasn't she? Hermione decided not to say anything just yet, but to ask questions. "Who do you mean?" Hermione asked, knowing she meant Draco. "My daddy," Dakota said, with Hermione's grown in her fist. Hermione took a moment before asking the unbearable question. "Who is your daddy, Dakota?" Dakota looked up at her mom, straight in to her eyes, and once again grey met brown. "You know who," Dakota told her.
A/N: Please Review! I've been trying my best to update, and found that if I don't do my work, I have more time :-D. lol. I'm still doing my work though.
Anyway, I did look at all of the suggestions for names, and they were all good and unique. The original name I was going to chose was Alexis. But then I thought about how I had a character in another fan fiction named Lexie, which is sometimes short for Alexis, and decided against it. I also liked the name Rosa.
However, like someone pointed out, I don't like the endings being the same with Dakota. So I picked Amber. Its sounds good with both the Granger and Malfoy name.