My Sister's Keeper

By: Mortania Hottersander

A/N: After a good night's rest, I am merely back at the keyboard. Thank goodness for dreams which show me what to write next.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling gets claim for all characters. I play with the plot & the ones I've inserted in the world.

Chapter 4: The Weeping Willow

After the day I had yesterday, I woke up in the morning both dreading and looking forward to my day. Lucius must've gotten up at the crack of dawn because he wasn't beside me when I finally was awaken by Draco standing over my bed, his hand on my shoulder.

"Mum." He whispered, and seeing my eyes open he sat down beside me. "I have to tell you something."

I just looked at him, wondering what it could possibly be that he had to speak to me at-what time was it? I looked over at the grandfather clock on the opposite wall-8 am. What could my son want to talk to me about at eight a.m. that couldn't possibly wait until ten or noon even?

"I don't want you to say anything to father just yet, but I wanted to ask you something."

"What Draco? Just out with it, son." I was far too tired to be dealing with this talk this early in the morning. I had my mind set upon contacting the solicitor today.

"I'm going to ask her to marry me." He smiled a rather large grin. My brain started spinning as I sat up with my back against the pillows-who was this person that Draco was going to ask to marry him? "I mean, with the war and everything I was afraid she wouldn't want to marry me, but now I know I couldn't imagine not wanting to wake up every morning without her. But I have to wait another two years until she's finished with school."

Okay, so that ruled out Pansy and all the girls his age. That also ruled out the class below him. Who in the name of Merlin was he speaking about? "Draco, to whom do you want to wed?" I know I probably sounded absolutely ridiculous when I asked him this-maybe he would just blame my memory lapse on the time. Or, I hoped he would.

"Astoria." He spoke her name so softly and tenderly. "Astoria Greengrass-Mum, she's beautiful. She has this beautiful golden blond hair, these perfect eyes that remind me of sapphires. She's breath-taking." I rubbed my eyes for a moment and then looked at my son. He had been through a lot in the past year-but I couldn't help but wonder if he had suddenly came to face his own mortality after the war. It would take a lot of healing for my son to live a normal life.

I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the first time I saw his face. He had just been cleaned off from being born and the moment I looked into his little eyes-they were already icy-but wide in wonder and yearning to learn what the world had in store for him. I saw him at two years old, his blond hair had curls in it, but Lucius was disgusted by this so he began slicking Draco's hair back-this was something that I had despised-his blond curls were absolutely gorgeous-I had loved running my fingers through them. When I opened my eyes I was looking at my seventeen soon to be eighteen year old son. His hair was now messy and his eyes looked-scared? Excited? Confused? I put my hand out and touched his cheek like I use to do when he was younger. "Draco, can you think about this for another week-maybe talk to her father and take her out on a date-if you still feel the same after talking to her, then talk to me again and I'll speak to your father about making a connection with the Greengrass family-they are pureblood, correct?" I asked, looking him in the eyes.

"Yes mum. I can do that. Thank you. Just, don't tell father before then. Please?"

"I promise Draco, now-go, I have to get ready for the day." I patted him on the shoulder and as he walked out the room he turned his head and gave me a smile. Boys, they'd break their mother's hearts one day-but they also make you so proud your heart wants to burst out of your chest.

Sliding my feet out from under the black velvet cover, I swung my legs over the side of the bed. After standing, I walked over to the windows and pulled back the curtains, allowing the sunlight that was out today to stream into the room, bathing the floor with sunlight. The bathroom was calling me this morning, and I couldn't be more relieved to stand in the steady streams of water flowing down from the shower.

After getting out of the shower and getting dressed, I walked out of the bedroom and into the study-where I found a piece of parchment and sat behind the desk. What I was going to write was something that I couldn't risk Lucius finding out just yet-or even Draco for that matter.

Dear Matthias Familiar –

This is just a notice to you that I have recovered an heir to the Lestrange Family Estate. Sadly, my sister, Bellatrix Armelle Black and her husband, Rodolphus Merrick Lestrange produced a child in the early years of their marriage. However, my sister, feeling that things were far too dangerous for her to be raising a child-gave the child over to a couple in the Muggle World who would raise the girl as though she was their own-far away from the dangers that plagued our world for so long. My sister had never planned on letting it go that long before she told her daughter about why she did what she did and who she really was. But as time passed, she found it even more difficult to find her child-and even more difficult to tell her husband what she had done with their only child. He had never even known that such heir existed-they did have another child later on, however I have not yet discovered just where or whom that child was. Or even if the child survived-However, I would like to notify the individual which would inherit the Lestrange Estate if she had been raised by my sister or similar family. I performed a test yesterday with the potion designed to show blood relativity. Before my sister had died, she thought that she had met her daughter, and as of yesterday, I confirmed those suspicions.

If you think it would be permissible, I would like to invite you and the individual which is my niece to lunch either at this manor or somewhere else in the Wizarding world. Even perhaps the muggle world.

Thank you for your time,

Narcissa Desdemona Black-Malfoy

I folded the letter, stamped the Malfoy crest on the letter in wax and then proceeded to go find my raven.

Matthias Familiar was a Solicitor. Not just any solicitor, but a Wizard who had been trained in both the muggle law and the Wizarding World's law. He often mediated between the two worlds where blood lines and families were concerned. Unfortunate for many families whose wealth and respect or position had been lost, he refused to work with them. However, the Malfoy family and Black family had been his fathers and now his most loyal customers. He almost could be considered the Malfoy family Solicitor. However, because Bellatrix had been a Black before marrying into the Lestrange family, he had been put in charge of her Estate.

When the raven had first flown to Matthias, it had been two days after the war. It was a letter from Narcissa Black-Malfoy requesting that her sister's estate be settled as quickly and quietly as possible. Matthias had told her that it might not be as quickly as she liked, but he would indeed keep the reporters at bay-which, given the fact that Rita Skeeter was a nosy bug, took a lot more effort than it should have, but Narcissa secured quite the hefty deposit to make sure that he did his job correctly and thoroughly. Thus far, he had not failed. He did, after all, want to see the second half of pay-as hefty as the first amount had been-the second would set him up for life-or until the Malfoy family called upon him again.

Matthias was sitting in the Wizarding world this time, reading a newspaper article about how Harry Potter had just petitioned to have Severus Snape declared as a war hero, not villain-saying he had proof that Severus Snape was working for the Light Side the entire time. He also had just put in to have the Malfoy family cleared of charges of treason. He flipped the page and saw that there were names listed of those that hadn't been found after the war-and were either presumed dead or just missing, some had notes such as reward amounts leading to the discovery of either a body or location.

After seeing that the Raven was sitting on the back of the chair across from him, he placed the paper down on the table and took the letter, then reached for a piece of toast and fed the Raven, which cawed at him and then flew away. Why in all the name of Merlin Narcissa Malfoy preferred a Raven over anything else was a mystery-the woman had white peacocks outside of her mansion for Merlin's sake. Reading the letter, he quietly paid for his drink and breakfast and made his way to the owl post office, where he penned a response to Narcissa, after which he paid for the post and made his way to his office just outside of the Leaky Cauldron in the Muggle World, to gather all the documents he would need.

I received the response at roughly eleven a.m. After which I nodded and did something I wasn't sure would work-I took a walk out to just outside the front gates of the mansion and took a chance to apparate hoping to end up wherever it was Hermione was located. When I arrived wherever it was I arrived-I looked around. There was absolutely nothing around. Where was I? It was a field with a lot of really tall grass. In the middle was a hill, with a weeping willow tree, and an array of colorful wildflowers.

I decided that I should just walk up to the weeping willow tree, because it would make sense that she would be under the only tree in the field. When I got closer, I saw her, she was laying on her back, her eyes closed facing the branches and all around her were butterflies fluttering about, her brown hair was surrounding her head like a halo. It was actually a beautiful setting. She must've known I had arrived because without opening her eyes she spoke.

"Is there a reason you've come here, Mrs. Malfoy?" She sounded slightly agitated. "I would expect your friend to have sent me the results in a letter rather than having you find me at my getaway spot."

"Well, Hermione Granger, I would've obliged my friend if it were not for the circumstances."

"What kind of circumstances are those might I inquire?" Hermione now sat up with her arms behind her, turning her face to me, eyes opened and curious.

"Hermione, might I sit beside you?" I asked, pointing to a spot on the blanket she was laying on which caused her to shrug and roll her eyes. "Very well, I'll stand." I stood about three yards away from her at this point. "When I contacted my friend, he concocted a potion used for testing blood links-paternal and maternal. Luckily he has samples from everyone which need be tested-and when he tested yours-it came back with startling results." I reached in my pocket in my cloak I used for summer travel and secured a piece of parchment which, oddly enough was connected with the potion I had mixed-and would print out results just as a Muggle DNA laboratory would. I held it out in front of me and then sighed before walking the three yards between us and handing the paper to her. "If this test is accurate, which it is 99.7% of the time, it means that you have quite an estate to inherit if you accept. It also means-"

"No bloody way in hell." She whispered. "There's no way. I don't believe this. Wait, you knew?" She turned her honey colored eyes to me and I looked down at her. "Did you know? How long ago did you know that this was true?" She asked me, standing now.

"Hermione, she had suspicions when you, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley came to the manor during the war. She said it was just to coincidental that you had the exact same eyes as Rodolphus. Her journal revealed that she also couldn't help but notice you had Rodolphus' face shape, her brains, and somewhat her brilliant personality before she joined Voldemort." I had to spit the last name out as though it was poison. I had been working on saying his name in the weeks since the war. I might as well, if everyone else was going to write it. I couldn't as well call him 'The Dark Lord'. "She also pointed it out rather specifically in a letter to me that the child she had on September 19, 1979 had the same birthday as you-and that's not just a coincidence. And standing here looking at you giving me that look, you remind me of our mother, Druella."

"I need to be alone. Leave." She held the paper close to her and stared out at the field, as though trying to sort her thoughts out without snapping. I couldn't help but want to give her a hug-but instead, I did as she asked and honored her request to have space. If I would've found out that my mother was Bellatrix Lestrange-I would've probably gone insane instead of remaining slightly calm and in denial. She would come around.

"You know where to find me." I said quietly before walking away from her and apparating back to the manor. One down, two to go. Or, at least, I hoped there were two more to find-if they hadn't been killed or died of natural causes. I could only hope quietly to myself that Hermione came around before the end of the week-so when it came time to give her what was truly hers, she would be able to accept it. While at the same time I realized that she probably would need time. Time to come to terms with the news she had just received, and time to tell her boyfriend who she really was.