Author's Note: IF you have NOT read the new chapter twelve, then you will not understand this chapter. Please go back and read that chapter. Thanks for everyone who has reviewed and made my story one of their favorites. JKR's stuff is hers. Happy Reading!
"Take my hand, take my life
Just don't take forever
And let me feel your pain kept inside
There's got to be a way you and I together now
Yeah it's comin' to get me
You're under my skin
No I can't let you go
You're a part of me now
Caught by the taste of your kiss
And I don't want to know the reason why I can't stay forever like this
Now I'm climbing the walls because I miss you"
"Climbing the Walls"-Backstreet Boys
Chapter Thirteen: Inside of these Walls
It was the first day of my full teaching career. Slughorn had retired at the end of last year and I was taking over his job completely. I had been teaching first years potions for three years, so moving on to teaching all years would be a great step for me. My luck was amazing the past three years. I had two beautiful children, I had a promotion, Draco's career skyrocketed and he never had to choose between his family and me, my friends were loyal in not telling him about Scorpius, and finally, Theodore Nott and Lucius Malfoy were not hunting me down. On this particular morning, I was trying to get Medea to get herself dressed to go down to Madam Moore. She was hired onto the staff specifically for me. She took care of Medea and Scorpius during the day while I was in class.
"Medea Calixte Mallerd! Put your buttocks in this dress and let's go!" I yelled at her. She had become a handful in the last year.
"I'm sorry Mummy. I'll put it on!" She said after hearing the tone in my voice. She put on the green dress with the Slytherin crest on the front. I was so grateful that she looked like me and hadn't decided to start asking about her father. I felt the same way about Scorpius, although everyone who saw him knew exactly who he belonged to. His pale blonde hair and bright gray eyes, he could be none other than Draco Malfoy's son. Luckily Draco had joined the Ministry and his job had taken him out of the country. I knew the moment he saw my son he would know he was his also.
I walked them down to Madam Moore's office. It was a fifteen minute walk up to her office from my dungeon chambers.
"Hello Annalisa, has anyone mentioned who our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is this year?"
"Oh hello Jordayna, no he wasn't mentioned, but I've seen him and he's extremely gorgeous." She answered my question. She gave me a sly wink.
"Well I won't be going after him. I have two children. That's enough for me." I said as I hugged my son and daughter and sent them to their daytime caretaker. "Be good for Madam Moore."
"We will Mummy." They both sang in their sweet voices. I walked off smiling. They were the two sweetest kids ever. I walked off to the faculty meeting. We had one every year before the students arrived that evening for the beginning of year feast. I walked into the Great Hall with a feeling of confidence and I looked up to the staff table, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Sitting up at the staff table beside Hagrid and Minerva (she made me call her that when we weren't in front of students, it was still really hard to do) was none other than Draco Malfoy. I grabbed my necklace like I always did when I was nervous. I have no idea why I hadn't taken it off in three years. Okay so I'm a liar, I didn't take it off because I was still madly in love with the father of my son, but as my following of Draco's career as a famous Auror has told me, he did not love me anymore. There had been so many social things he had gone to with some girl or another attached to his arm. He had gone to Ginny and Harry's one year anniversary party with a Pureblood girl from Italy named Rosaria. We had danced once out of nostalgia. I was so glad I had not brought the kids to the party because Scorpius was only six months old and Draco would have felt compelled to stay. He had just started out in his job. It was before him, Harry, and Ron had solved anything.
"Ahh Jordayna, you finally join us. I want you to greet our newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I believe you remember Draco Malfoy." Minerva announced to me as I regained composure and walked a little more steadily to the staff table. Who was she kidding? Of course she knew that I remembered him. My damn son was the spitting image of the man before me.
"Mallerd." He greeted me without feeling.
"Malfoy."
"Well let's start the meeting." Minerva began. The entire meeting I barely participated. I kept trying to come up with plans to hide Scorpius from him.
When the meeting was over we were excused to dress for the feast. My job, as it had been for the last three years, was to greet the first years and sort them. Minerva had felt it would be less threatening to have someone closer to their age. I started to head towards the dungeons when Draco caught up to me.
"Mallerd, wait up!" He said as he jogged a little towards me. "How does it feel to be the American Halfblood Head of House for Slytherin?"
"It feels awesome. It's not exactly naming a dungeon after me, but it will do…for now." I answered. I forgot how easily it was to just be with him.
"How's Medea?" He asked. I tensed thinking of my son.
"She's wonderful."
"Will I get to see her?"
"Maybe, I tend to keep her with the caretaker until it is time for classes to be over, and then I pick her up and spend as much time with her as I can before bed." I answered trying to make sure I didn't let it slip that Medea was not the only child in Annalisa's care.
"Oh well I never got to meet her beyond that first day of her life. She looked so much like you as an infant. I just wondered if she stayed as beautiful as her mother."
"Oh, yeah everyone around here says she looks exactly like me." I responded. "They say it's nice to not have anything of Nott in her. I'm glad. I don't want to have to explain that sooner than necessary."
"It sounds like you're doing well. It also seems like we're going to be area mates. My quarters are in the dungeons near yours. Minerva told me that you would be able to show me to them."
Damn that woman! She knows I don't want Draco to know about Scorpius and then she goes and throws him in the quarters down the hall! "Of course I can. Here let me take you now. I was headed down anyways to change for the feast." I said as nonchalantly as I possibly could.
I led him down to the dungeons stopping at a statue of Snape. "This is where you would enter your living quarters. I'll leave you to get dressed." I said. He stopped me by grabbing my arm. Before I could react he crashed his lips against mine. I stopped breathing and reacted automatically. I let myself enjoy it for about thirty seconds until reality kicked my brain into gear. This was the way to protect myself and my children. Get involved with Draco. Idiot!
"I can't." I whispered and ran down the corridor to my own quarters. I needed to put some distance between myself and him before I fell all over again. It had taken crying for six months every night for me to convince myself that what I had done was right for both of us.
I had been able to hide Scorpius from Draco for two weeks. I would get Floo calls every night from Ginny, Hermione, and Daphne asking if he had found out yet. I told them that he wasn't going to, and their responses were always the same. They kept telling me that the castle may be huge, but you can't hide from someone else who's living in it too. Their warnings finally came true tonight. We were walking back from Madam Moore's office, and usually Draco's final class for the day was during this time, but something had happened. He was down the corridor getting ready to go into his quarters when he looked over.
"Jordayna, I just wanted to apolo…" He started, and then he noticed the pale blonde two-year-old at my side. "Well hello." He greeted Scorpius as he knelt beside him. Scorpius just shoved his face into my robes. I kept thinking this was going to be okay. Draco seemed okay with it. I looked at his eyes, and they flashed steel. Okay, wrong assessment, Draco was pissed. Well here goes everything I worked so hard for. "You and I need to talk." He said so softly I almost thought I imagined it.
I couldn't respond. I was frozen.
"Now." He commanded.
"I can't. I have children to take care of." I said defiantly. My brain was on defense.
"Damnit Jordayna! We'll walk the grounds; you can drop them off at the oaf's shack." He said. He started to walk towards the stairs that led up to the exit of the castle.
"Mummy, maybe we shouldn't follow him." Medea said. Draco's sudden harshness had scared Scorpius and she was worried about her brother.
I stopped outside of Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door. Hagrid opened the door. He started to flash me a smile because it had been a long time since I had brought the kids down to play with him, until he looked behind me and saw Draco glaring.
"Oh, I see." It was all he had to say. He asked the kids to come in and play with Fang, which meant play some Wizard's Chess and let the dog sleep at their feet.
I turned back to the steel gray eyes. I understood in that moment what it would feel like if looks could kill. I walked up to him and he made me follow him around the lake.
"How? I can't deny that he isn't mine. I would have to be a stupid man to believe that. I just need to know how and when."
"Well if I have to tell you how, then maybe I was wrong in guessing that you knew about sex leading to babies."
"Jordayna, don't be a smartass!" He barked.
"Sorry. Okay, you remember the drunken graduation night?"
He stopped and stared at me. Obviously he remembered that night more than I did.
(Memory)
I woke up with a start. Where was I? I looked around and made the assessment that somehow I was in Draco's room, and that's when the night's events flashed back. I had thrown myself at Draco in a last ditch attempt at selfishness. I just hoped that he had thought about a contraceptive charm. I crawled quietly out of his bed, wrote him a small note saying goodbye, and snuck back to my room. I had packed as quickly as I could and ran to Professor McGonagall and asked her if I would be allowed to Floo home it was an emergency. She had let me because the year had been so rough.
(End Memory)
"I'm sorry. I forgot a contraceptive charm." He apologized. I couldn't help but feel like an ass. Here I was in the wrong and he was apologizing.
"It's okay. He's completely wonderful and I wouldn't trade him for the world."
"Why didn't you tell me? I would have made you agree to let me stay with you."
"That's precisely why I didn't tell you. You're off doing wonderful things. You're attached to Pureblood women. Your father is Medea's father's godfather, as long as he's happy, then the longer I don't have to worry about him delivering me to Nott along with my daughter. I just thought it was for the best." I answered quietly. It sounded stupid when I said it out loud to him.
"You're so damn stubborn! You always have been! I could have taken care of my father. And I still would have had a career I just wouldn't have taken missions that required me to be gone as long, and I sure as hell wouldn't be wasting my time with Pureblooded idiots." He finished before lifting my face to meet his and connecting our lips. I melted. I could feel his anger in his kiss and somehow it wasn't such a bad thing. I had to pull away again though.
"I can't. I can't do this again. I swore that I would not let you ruin your life with mine. You can see him, you can even have him for months at a time if that's what you want, but we can't do this. We just can't." I whispered trying to convince myself more than him.
"You don't get to choose if or how I ruin my life. I don't think being with you is ruining my life. I do want to know my son, and in that case my daughter. And don't tell me she's not. I spent those six months with you and that day of her birth. Nott may have created her, but she'll always be mine because I bonded with her during your pregnancy. You need to stop denying me what we both want. I want to be with you. I have spent the last three years in agony wanting to touch you again, and kiss your lips." He said taking my chin in his hand and kissing my forehead. The speech was beautiful. How could I say no? Especially when he's standing there looking like the pale Greek god he is. He took my hand in his and guided me back towards Hagrid's hut. "Let's go get our children. I have some catching up to do."
I got back to the hut, and knocked softly on the door. Hagrid came to it and glanced between me and Draco. I could tell he was hesitant.
"It's okay Hagrid. Can I have Medea and Scorpius back? Draco and I talked everything through."
"Oi, come in. I guess ya can too." He answered acknowledging Draco.
"Mummy!" Scorpius screamed as he came running to my leg, but he stopped the moment he saw Draco standing there.
"What's he doing here?" Medea asked in her tone.
"Medea Calixte, you will mind your manners. Really you would think I would have raised one of the Weasley boys the way you're talking. Now I want both of you to come here." I scolded and commanded. Medea came up and took Scorpius's hand and looked at me for the next set of directions.
"I want you two to meet your Daddy." I reluctantly let out. I was afraid of what the two of them would do. Medea stopped and looked between her brother and the man I was calling her father. She was assessing the not so subtle similarities between the two.
"I don't look like him." She mentioned.
"No sweetie. You look like Mummy, but you knew that already because everyone always tells you that." I said and watched as Medea nodded in agreement. She really did look exactly like me. Her shoulder-length strawberry-chocolate hair was board-straight, and her eyes changed with her mood.
"Hi Daddy!" She squealed and ran to him. Scorpius still clung to my leg.
"He's really shy. I'm sorry." I tried to apologize to Draco.
"No it's fine." He said dejectedly. I went to take his hand and Scorpius screamed. It was so out of character for him that I wasn't even sure it came from him until he started to cry.
"What's the matter Scorpius? Baby, what is the matter?"
"Mummy leave." He managed to say in between sobs.
"I'm not going anywhere baby. What would make you think that?"
"Mummy leave with Daddy. No want Scorpius and Meme." He cried into my collarbone.
"Oh baby, Mummy would never leave you. Daddy wants to be with you too."
"Daddy never here before." He mumbled between sobs.
"That was Mummy's fault. Daddy didn't know that I had you two. Be mad at Mummy."
"I never mad at Mummy." He said and I could tell that he was beginning to feel better. He even glanced over at Draco a few times as if he were actually curious at meeting him. He stuck out his arms expecting Draco to take him from me.
"He wants you to hold him." I said handing him Scorpius.
Draco had asked me if he could take the three of us to dinner in Hogsmeade. I was freaking out about my outfit. I called in reinforcements.
"You guys! I haven't been on a date with Draco since Valentine's Day three years ago! What am I going to wear?!" I started yelping in the middle of my room while Daphne and Ginny just stared at me.
"You're beautiful as is. You don't need to worry about what you wear. You could show up in a dress made from a garbage bag and Draco would still worship the ground you walked on." Daphne tried to assure me. She would know. She had been one of two of Draco's best friends for the last five years. Luckily for her, she was married to the other one. "He's been in love with you for four years. He's not going to care what you wear. He's asked about you every time he could, and I want you to know that it killed Blaise to keep Scorpius from him."
"I know and I thank you guys for that." I said feeling really guilty.
"I found something!" Ginny screamed from inside my closet. She stepped out holding my dress from the Halloween Ball.
"I can't wear that! I don't even fit in it anymore. I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I had two kids since I wore that thing." I said indignantly.
"Magic fixes anything Jordayna." Ginny pointed out to me. "Plus the last time you wore this dress you two were really happy."
"Fine, but can we alter it a little. I don't want him to know it is the exact same dress."
"Sure." Both of the other women said with smiles. They had me put the dress on. They only had to take it out three inches with their wands. I hadn't gained too much weight from the pregnancies, well, not in the waist at least. My breasts on the other hand, well Ginny had to fix that area of the dress a lot. She decided to change it from a halter dress to a dress with one strap that went over the shoulder. She kept everything else except for the color. She changed the dress into an emerald green with black lace trimming.
"You look beautiful, and now your hair." Ginny said stepping aside for Daphne to take over. My hair had grown three inches since the last time I had seen Draco. It also had been up every day since then too. I really saw no need for it to be down; it just got in the way making potions. Daphne had pulled back half of my hair and left the rest of it down.
"The last time, we did waves. I want to leave it straight and show off exactly how long your hair is." Daphne explained as she had the ends float inward at the bottom.
"Mummy pretty!" Scorpius cried as he entered the room in his black suit and Slytherin tie.
"You're pretty too." I told him as Medea strutted in. She was wearing a silver button down blouse with the Slytherin crest on it, and a long green skirt. "You're gorgeous my Medea." I complimented her as she twirled around to let me see everything.
There was a knock at the quarters' door. I went to open it, and there was Draco standing in black dress pants and a green button-down shirt. He was just as yummy as he had always been. After noticing that we looked like one of those corny matching families I started to laugh out loud.
"What's so funny?" He asked checking himself over.
"No it's not you. I was just laughing because you will see just exactly how silly we're all going to look." I mentioned and beckoned Ginny and Daphne to carry the kids to the sitting room of my quarters. Draco looked them over and realized that all of us were wearing green, silver, and black.
"Well at least everyone will know we're a Slytherin family." He said with assurance.
The evening had gone over splendidly; it was what happened this morning that had put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day. I was sitting at breakfast next to Draco when post came in. The owls dropped off my usual Daily Prophet, and sitting on the front page was a picture of Draco, my children, and I at the restaurant at Hogsmeade. I started to read the article.
It seems that there was a special family outing last night at Mettie's Potion House. One of Britain's most important Aurors turned Hogwarts professor, Draco Malfoy, was out last night with fellow professor and daughter of infamous American Robert Mallerd, Jordayna Mallerd. It seems the two have been together before because seated with them were two children. Each child resembled one of their parents. This reporter wonders how this is possible if Draco Malfoy has been seen attached to Rosaria LaKina, Pureblooded Italian socialite for the last three years.
"Ugh, the nerve!" I muttered under my breath.
"Relax; she pretty much called me a cheating father. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Draco Darius Malfoy! I need to speak with you." A hard voiced drawl came from the back of the great hall.
"Mr. Malfoy! I will not have you just walking into my school and scaring my students!" Minerva yelled at Lucius Malfoy.
The last thing I remember was seeing Lucius Malfoy glare at me before I blacked out.
