CHAPTER 29

Draco's day was much different. He spent a good deal of it shocked into silence, too upset to speak, shouting at his father in disgust and disbelief, or so angry he had to bite his tongue to keep his comments to himself.

The start of it had been the meeting at Gringotts. Draco had assumed he was accompanying his father to move some of their funds around. He had done so many times in the past, and always dreaded the long process. The goblins didn't trust the funds to be moved magically, so they manually moved the money from vault to vault, recounting it on each end. It took forever and as the Malfoys had 23 vaults in Gringotts alone, could take them half a day if Lucius had a lot to move.

Draco was struck dumb when he heard his father announce that he did indeed want to transfer funds, but not to another vault. His father explained that he wanted half of the money from the Black family vault #2564 and half from Malfoy vault #1635 to be exchanged into muggle money and transferred to account #78574938 in the American Bank of Wizards in Draco and Hermione's names. He listened in shock as his father explained that his wife had set up the account the day before, so all should be in order.

It wasn't until they stood outside in front of the bank an hour later that Draco finally found his tongue.

His voice was quiet, but forceful as he said, "Father, I can't believe you just did that? Do you have any idea how much money that is!"

Lucius looked down his nose at his son, nodded once and answered, "I did as your mother asked, Draco. Do you have some objection to accepting your family's money?"

"No, but Father…."

Lucius started down the steps as he asked, "And, is there something wrong with your mother wanting to make sure you can live comfortably, in the manner you choose?"

"No, that's not the…" Draco began, but was once again cut off.

They reached the street and Lucius stopped to stare into eyes so like his own, "Well, then I suppose this is about her? Why should she have an objection to sharing your money, when she shares everything else with you?"

Draco knew no way to explain it, but he knew Hermione would not be pleased with the situation.

"Father, I am sure Hermione will be very thankful of your generous offer, but she is rather independent and well, she may see this as, well, as a way of paying her to…"

Draco was shocked to see his father's face cloud in derision and what seemed to be insult, "Draco Lucius Malfoy, we are most certainly not buying the chit for you! We are simply showing our acceptance of this situation. Your mother feels you should have more comforts open to you and this will allow that. If Hermione Granger can't accept your family's money, then she can't really accept you, now can she?"

There was no good answer to that and Draco knew it. He thought over the millions of dollars his parents had given them and knew that in their own way, this was them showing not only acceptance, but in his father's case, love for him. He also knew Lucius kept bringing Narcissa into the conversation as a way to cover his own part in the entire thing. It touched him to know that regardless of how his father felt about his choice of partner, he accepted it. He accepted them.

"You are right, as always, Father. I was being ungrateful and I do apologize. And, I thank you. I am sure Hermione will be delighted, as well."

Lucius' face didn't change, but his snort gave away his thoughts on the matter.

"Come. We are already late to see Simmons."

Draco started to ask what they needed to see a lawyer about, but his father had already walked briskly away toward the building next door.

As soon as they entered the building a pretty young witch hurried over to them.

"Misters Malfoy, welcome. Barrister Simmons is ready for you. Please follow me."

She turned and led them to an elevator where she pressed a button and they moved sideways across the building to come to a stop in front of Simmons' outer office.

"May I take your cane, Mr. Malfoy?

At his look, she backed up a step and stuttered, "Oh, okay, I'll just announce you then."

Draco almost allowed a smile as he watched her trip backwards across the room to the lawyer's door.

Minutes later they were seated comfortably in the barrister's office.

"Is everything ready to be signed Simmons?" Lucius asked in lieu of a greeting.

"Oh yes, just as you asked. We have all the papers here for you and young Master Malfoy to sign."

"Well, let's get this done then. We have a lunch meeting in half an hour."

"Of course, of course, let me just get a quill," the nervous man said. "There you are."

As Lucius bent over the papers to make sure everything was in order, Simmons seemed to let out a pent up breath now that the man's cold eyes were off of him. He turned to the younger Malfoy.

"If I may say so, Master Malfoy, you are looking well."

"Thank you, Barrister Simmons. I am quite well. And how are you and your lovely wife?"

Both men chose to ignore Lucius' indelicate cough. The picture on the desk of Simmons and his wife showed a little toad of a women who reminded Draco of Dolores Umbridge with black hair.

"She's fine as ever, thank you for asking. Away for the week, visiting her family in…"

"I think everything is in order," Lucius interrupted. "Draco, sign here, here, here and here, so that we can go."

Draco was used to following his father's orders, but had been taught better than to sign his name to anything he hadn't read. He slid the papers in front of him and began to read. The more he read, the more his face drained of color. By the time he was done, he looked much like a ghost as he stared in horror at his father.

"I can't believe you thought I would sign this!" he hissed at his father.

Lucius merely raised an eyebrow at him, "Draco, there is absolutely nothing wrong with…"

Draco cut his father off as he stood up. There were so many things wrong with it, that he couldn't think what to say first.

His smoothed his face and kept his voice as calm as he looked at the lawyer, "Barrister Simmons, I will need some time to read through these thoroughly before signing. I assume you have another copy."

Simmons nodded as he stared at the young man, whose eyes had, in an instant, become exact copies of his father's.

"Well, then. Thank you for your time. We will see ourselves out."

Not another word was spoken between the men until they stood in the lobby once again.

"Draco, I…"

"Washroom," was all Draco said. They turned and walked to the washroom where Draco cast a locking and silencing charm as he stared at his father.

"How could you!" he finally exploded.

"Now, you listen here, you ungrateful, little…"

"No!" Draco said over his father, "This time you will listen and hear me well for this is the last time I say this."

Draco straightened the papers he had balled in his fist and began.

He ripped off the first page and waved it at his father as he said loudly, "If and when Hermione and I get married, it will not be for political or monetary gain. For us, nor for you! And, you have no right to dictate that she leave teaching to work in the ministry after our marriage."

"Draco, your mother and I feel…"

"Don't you dare!" Draco roared. "Do not bring her into this. I know she wouldn't have had any part of this."

He ripped off the second and third pages and continued, his voice gaining strength with each word he bit out.

"And, if you ever suggest that Hermione might be unfaithful to me again, I will personally see you feel the pain of it."

"Listen, Draco…"

But Draco had already thrown the first papers to the floor and balled the remaining few in his hand as he spat, "And, hear me clearly when I say that my future children will be of no concern to you, EVER, if you try to pull this lowly shite again! To suggest that there would be greater worth and wealth given to boys over girls and magical over non-magical, when they would be your own flesh and blood is ridiculous, rude, disgusting, and insulting! I didn't see a preference for blondes over brunettes, Father. Or, did I miss that along with eye color! I know you have no love of Hermione, but I thought you gave a shit about me!"

"I was only trying to protect you," Lucius sighed.

"No, you were not! You were purposely aiming to hurt and humiliate Hermione. Look me in the eye and tell me this travesty of a legal document would have been drawn up had I fallen in love with a pureblood witch!"

When his father merely stared at him, Draco continued, "I thought not!"

Both men stared at one another for a long moment, before Draco dropped the remaining pages and set fire to them. Lucius watched the pages burn and disappear and then looked back at his son. Draco was so angry his hands shook slightly and his breath was ragged. Lucius hadn't seen him lose control of his emotions like that since the day the Ministry had shown up at their door. The loss of control in his son he could deal with. The anger he could take. But, the look in his eyes, disbelief, insult, rage, and most of all hurt, he couldn't. Above all, he loved his son.

"Draco, listen to me," he said quietly in a voice Draco hadn't heard in a long while. It was filled with sorrow, apology, and just a touch of shame. Things Lucius very rarely showed outside of the privacy of his bedroom with his wife. His heart skipped a beat when his father added, "Please."

He knew how much that one word cost his father and nodded for him to continue. He watched his father's eyes slide away from his as Lucius' head lowered slightly.

"I lo…love you. And, I want nothing less than the world at your feet. Things have not always been easy for you. For us. I know my incorrect choices led to some rather…difficult years. But, through it all, I only ever wanted you to be happy, powerful, and successful. To you that document was an insult, but that truly was not my intent. I thought it a good way to better secure your future that is all. I know you are with Ms. Granger, and I believe it to be a rather permanent arrangement. What you saw as a punishment of sorts for having a non-magical or girl child, I saw as nothing more than additional praise for having a magical boy to carry on the Malfoy name. I did not look at it from your point of view, nor hers. For that I…I do apologize."

Draco stared at his father in shock. In one speech he had managed to say everything Draco had ever wanted to hear. He had proclaimed his love, admitted his stupidity in siding with Voldemort, and apologized, something Draco had never heard him do. Not even to Narcissa.

"Father, I…," he finally managed.

Lucius straightened his back and lifted his chin once again, "Say nothing. It is done. We will forget it happened."

Draco nodded and his father turned to the mirror to straighten his robes, "And, although I will only say this to you, I have come to have a sort of…respect for her. She's a very capable witch, who has chosen to not stand in the limelight after all that happened, and despite the circumstances of her birth, seems to be a perfectly agreeable person. She's pretty enough to be at your side and has finally proven her intelligence in choosing to be with my son."

Draco had to clench his jaw to keep it from dropping. He almost asked if his father was under some curse, but stopped himself.

"Thank you," he said quietly instead.

Lucius met his son's eyes in the mirror and allowed a ghost of a smile to grace his features for a moment. Then with a nod, he put his façade back on and swung toward the door.

"Will you please lift these infernal charms," he demanded haughtily. "We are late for our lunch."

"Of course," Draco answered and then followed his father out of the door.

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

Hermione laughed with Narcissa at a story about Draco's first potty experience. Even as a small child his privacy had been precious to him, and he had refused to go with others staring at him. His stubborn streak had landed him in St. Mungos with belly pains as he held it so long he had passed out.

Narcissa laughed at the memory, as she munched on her small fruit salad, "It's funny now, but just imagine how it feels to rush a two year old to the hospital and then explain he's there because he won't go to the bathroom. Quiet scary and embarrassing, I assure you. They doubted both my sanity and my mothering skills!"

"I believe you," Hermione giggled. "You poor thing."

Narcissa glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Oh poo! It is time. I promised Lucius I would be home by three. We have a party to attend tonight and he wants to spend some alone time together before we have to go."

Hermione didn't stop the wrinkling of her nose, but laughed, "Too much information, Narcissa."

"Oh, I am sorry, dear, but just imagine you and Draco in twenty years. I can't believe you would let the passion fade."

"Okay, stop! I am not talking about this with you," Hermione said as she blushed to her roots.

Narcissa looked shocked, "Why ever not? We're becoming friends and girlfriends talk about such things."

"Yes, we are becoming friends, and I am very glad of it. And, we can talk about almost anything, but this. You're his mother! I don't talk to my own mother about things like this, and I surely can't talk about him with you, Narcissa."

"Such a prude," Narcissa tsked with a laugh. "Okay, I will let the subject drop for now. Now, get your things and let's go."

While Narcissa was headed home, Hermione was going straight to Harry and Ginny's. Draco would meet her there.

In front of her fireplace, Hermione smiled warmly and returned the hug given to her. Her eyes opened wide in shock when Narcissa leaned forward and gave her a light kiss on her cheek. And, she felt her eyes tear when Narcissa spoke quietly.

"I am very glad Draco found you again. Thank you for loving my son. And, thank you for this week. I think I needed you in my life, Hermione, almost as much as my son did. Good bye for now my new friend."

"Goodbye, Narcissa," she answered softly with a wave as Narcissa stepped in and disappeared in a flash of green.

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

"Honestly, guys," Hermione smiled as she sipped her tea in the Potter's living room, "it was actually kind of nice."

Ginny laughed and pulled her feet up under her and settled in closer to her husband on the sofa, "I just can't picture it. You and Narcissa Malfoy…friends. Blows my mind completely."

"I have to say, I agree, Mione," Harry nodded as he put his cup down and put his arm around his wife. "It's weird to say the very very least."

Hermione shrugged and laughed, "I know. It's weird for me, too. I think she's lonely for female companionship. And, she seems to honestly like me. Of course, I know half of it is that I'm with Draco, but we spent a lot of time alone together and she's actually very nice. And, she's honest. I didn't expect that. Actually, she's too honest sometimes, but whatever. It was nice. She can be a bit much in her exuberance about everything sometimes, but it's oddly endearing."

"So, what about Malfoy?" Ginny asked. There was no need to ask to who she meant. The sneer on her lips confirmed that she was referring to the father.

"Still an ass," Hermione shrugged. "But, he seems to at least tolerate me now. Freakish, insensitive, controlling, egotistical, pain in the ass."

Ginny laughed, "Tell us how you really feel, why don't you?"

Hermione grinned at them and then burst out laughing.

Harry finally asked, "Okay, what's the joke?"

"I was just imagining the conversation where Narcissa explains to him that they have to have electricity installed in the manor."

Ginny and Harry looked at her in confusion, so for the next few minutes she filled them in on Narcissa's new addiction to American soap operas and talk shows. When she got to the part about having shown Narcissa how to charm the TV for Quidditch games to win Lucius over, Ginny doubled over in laughter.

Harry had been laughing, too, but then his eyes drifted over to the TV set as it played quietly providing them with background noise. "Mione, can you do that to ours, too?"

Ginny added, "Yeah, that would be so cool!"

And, Hermione nodded, but rolled her eyes at them playfully. She would simply never understand her friends' fascination with the game.

For the next few minutes she told them more about her week. She had just finished telling them about Narcissa's visit to her job when Draco apparated into the room. He looked around at everyone as he moved toward Hermione.

"Hi, Draco," Ginny smiled.

Harry nodded, "Draco."

"Hello, Harry, Ginny," he smiled. Then he reached Hermione and leaned down to kiss her lightly, "Hey you."

She smiled up at him, "Hey. You're late, what happened?"

Before he could answer, the boys, having heard the pop, ran into the room and jumped on Draco.

"Hi, Mr. D!" yelled Teddy. "Are you ready?"

Draco reached down, pried a screaming Albie off his leg, put him on his hip and then stooped down to look into Teddy's anxious face. "Ready for what Teddy?"

"You promised to show me how to beat Daddy at Wizard's Chess, remember? I already set up the board."

Draco smiled at him, "No, I didn't forget, but I just got here. Maybe we can wait until I've had a cup of tea and said a proper hello to your parents first, okay?"

Teddy looked disappointed, but nodded and mumbled, "Okay."

He didn't like to see the boy look sad and figured he knew a way to cheer him up. It was hard to look serious with Albie jumping up and down on his side, but he kept his face straight.

"But, guess what?" Draco said softly as he leaned in conspiratorially.

"What?" Teddy mock whispered.

"You remember my big secret?"

Teddy's eyes flew to Hermione before he turned back to Draco and nodded. Then he said quickly, "I haven't told anybody."

Draco ignored Harry's attempt to cover his laugh with a cough and smiled, "You were a very good friend for keeping my secret. Thank you. But, you don't have to keep it a secret anymore. I told her."

"You did!" Teddy shouted. He then put his hands on his little hips and shook his head sadly, "I'm so sorry, Mr. D."

Draco looked at him in confusion, but was beat to the question by Hermione, who had been trying to hold back her laughter at the whole scene, "What for Teddy?"

"Because, now all you're going to want to do is kiss him and stuff, like Mommy does to poor Daddy. And, that's icky."

Harry laughed, "Well, Teddy, Daddy doesn't mind all that much. And, I'm pretty sure Drac…uh, Mr. D will be okay with it, too."

Teddy looked unconvinced, but nodded, "If you say so." Then he turned to his younger brother, "Come on Albie, let's go play until Mr. D. is ready."

The adults watched the boys leave and only when they heard their bedroom door shut, did they let the laughter out. Harry accioed Draco a cup of tea and sat back to hear more about their week.

Hermione and Draco shared the telling of the story. Ginny and Harry found themselves laughing at the stories, but also watching the easiness and comfort between the two. For Ginny it was a nice thing to see. For Harry it was unnerving as usual, but also nice and a bit reassuring. If he was going to put his friendship with Ron in jeopardy over it, it had better be real.

Hermione sat comfortably next to Draco and carried on their conversation, but she also watched him out of the corner of her eye. Something was wrong, not that he did anything specifically, but she knew him and felt it. She saw it in the tenseness of his eyes, the grip he had on his cup, and the way he held himself. As she carried on their laughing conversation she wondered what had happened with his father to upset him.

With the understanding girls have with one another, she silently let Ginny know they needed a moment alone.

Ginny stood and stretched, "Mmmm, I need to go put dinner on. Be back in a few. And, Harry, would you check on the boys, please? They've been too quiet."

Harry nodded and got up, but seemed reluctant to leave Hermione and Draco alone. First, it was rude to leave guests alone, and second, he still didn't fully trust Draco. He was coming to like him slowly, but he still wasn't completely comfortable leaving the man alone in his house.

Hermione laughed up at him, "I promise we'll be good. Go check on the boys, Harry."

He had the decency to blush a little, but laughed, "Be right back."

As soon as Harry disappeared around the corner, Hermione put a silencing charm on the sofa and turned to Draco, "What's wrong?"

Draco laughed at her perception and leaned over to kiss her deeply. When they broke apart he sighed, "I needed that."

"Okay, but that doesn't answer the question. What happened today? You're tense."

"There's too much to tell you in the few seconds we have left before Harry comes back to keep watch over you. But, I'm okay. It was just a long day. I'll tell you all about later tonight, okay?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked softly and put her hand to the side of his face.

He leaned into her hand with his eyes closed for a moment as he took a deep breath. Then he turned his head and kissed her palm, "I'm much better now, love. Thanks for worrying about me, though."

"I love you," she shrugged.

"Thanks for that, too," he smiled at her.

"I never realized how weird that looked," Harry's voice interrupted them.

They jumped a little and looked over at him. He stood with his arms folded across his chest and leaned against the doorjamb smiling at them.

Since they looked confused by his statement he laughed, "Seeing two people having a silent conversation in ones living room and hearing nothing but buzzing, is strange indeed."

He saw Hermione's, "Oh!" and then the buzzing stopped.

"Thanks," he laughed, "I don't think I've ever been on the other side of that before."

"Sorry about that," Hermione said.

Draco looked uncomfortable and Harry still wasn't used to seeing him with emotions. It unsettled him, so he thought it best to let it go. "Gin?" he called.

Ginny poked her head out of the kitchen, "Yes?"

"Dinner ready? I'm starving," he whined.

She shook her head at him, but looked to Hermione, "Soon. Wanna come help me set the table Mione?"

Hermione nodded and squeezed Draco's thigh before she got up to join Ginny in the kitchen.

Harry watched her go and then looked to Draco. "You guys okay?" he asked softly, not meeting the other man's eyes.

Draco looked startled by the question, but swallowed his initial snarky retort. He still wasn't quite used to Harry being nice to him or being nice in return. It was strange learning to have friends, other than Blaise, after so long.

"Better than ever," he finally responded after a pause. "I just had a long day and she was…sorry about shutting you out in your own home."

Harry accepted the apology with a nod, but felt he needed to ask, "Anything you want to talk about?"

Draco again looked at him oddly and shook his head, "No, but thanks, Harry." Then he looked away and sighed, "Just spent the day with dear old dad and argh!"

Before Harry could say anything Draco jumped to his feet and started pacing as he began to spill the whole story. He hadn't planned to confide in Harry. It just happened; he just needed to get it off his chest. And, Harry was just in the right place at the right time and got to be his audience. And as Harry listened to his ex-enemy describe his day, he realized he never really knew the Malfoy family the way he thought he did.

"He wanted her to do what!" he interrupted Draco's rant on their time in the barrister's office.

"I know!" Draco said as he plopped back down on the sofa. "That was my reaction. But, wait, it gets better."

Hermione and Ginny had been down the hall in the kitchen talking when they heard Harry yell. They both jumped up and ran out to see what had caused the commotion.

They arrived in time to hear Draco say, "So, if that wasn't bad enough, he just stops like nothing happened and tells me it's time to go have lunch with the Parkinsons!"

"You saw Pansy," Hermione said from the doorway, her voice filled with understanding and just a little fear.

Draco turned to see Hermione and Ginny standing together in the doorway and nodded. He held out his hand to her and she walked toward him.

"Yeah, but that wasn't the worse part of the day. You missed all the good parts of the story," he laughed a little.

Harry shocked himself when he asked, "So, what happened when you got there?"

My word! I am actually asking Draco Malfoy about his day with his father? When did this happen? When did I start to give a flying fig about him? Or, his screwed up relationship with his family? When Hermione began to I guess. Who would have thought we would all end up like this?

"So, we sit down and they're all there. Even Pansy's brother." He heard Hermione's sharp intake of breath and took her hand, "Yeah, I was pretty shocked, too."

Ginny growled at the thought of the Parkinson family, but interrupted him to say, "Hold on, I want to hear this, but dinner's ready. Come on, we can continue this in the dining room."

Draco got up when everyone else did and headed to the dining room. He glanced over at Harry and it hit him.

I am almost friends with The-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Be-A-Pain-In-My-Ass. How the hell did this happen? When? When I fell for Hermione. Shit! Next thing you know, I'll be playing cards with the Weasel. But, it did feel good to talk to someone about things. I can't believe I just let it all pour out like that though. I must be more stressed out than I thought. I've never done that with anyone other than B and Mi. Wow. Well, in for a penny, as they say.

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
Author's Notes –

Every read is a treasure, every review a gift. And, I thank each and every one of you!

And, a warm welcome to the story and additional thank you to the following for adding my story, or me, as a Favorite, or setting an alert for it: gingerkisses9, katertot84, darktwistedpoet, Pamela, Fozzy-Floozy, Wylde Tygress, nikkiMac20, nelygirl, sarabara8692, l3lueclipse, and grumpy grizzly.