Shout out to bloodyphoenixofhell:: I am going to post my reply to your review at the bottom of this chapter. =) It's a pretty lengthy reply, so if you're too busy to read it or just don't want to, that's understandable. =)

I just posted the reply here in case my readers are curious about why I write the way I do, because I did explain a little bit about everything. Though, I got a little too into it I think… the reply is longer than this very brief chapter—barely on the third page in size 11 font—and the reply took me 45 minutes to write x.x

Chapter 5:: Where's My Daddy?

For the first time since Hermione and Ginny opened the daycare, Hermione found herself not wanting to go to work. The news of Harry hit her hard, the impromptu meeting with her former professor scared her, and her reconnection to feelings long buried were trying to recover. She wanted, no—needed—this personal day. She trudged her way to the phone and called Ginny up at work.

"Mandy?" She was hoarse with sleep. "Can you tell Marissa to cover for me today?"

"What's wrong?" Ginny's voice immediately going to concern. Certainly Alyssa wouldn't skip work without a good reason.

"Some things have come up that just bother me too much. And I need to talk with you about something excruciatingly painful. So, I'll send the kids over and get my things to do the paperwork here. Can you just have Marissa come in? She's been wanting more hours anyway." When Ginny agreed, Hermione stood and dressed rather lazily in a pair of tight fitting jeans and a loose, off the shoulder, white blouse. She brushed her hair out and slipped on her sandals.

Hermione, after deciding she was decent enough for public appearances woke the girls and began her ritual of getting them ready for pre-school. She laid out three outfits each and let them decide on what they wanted to wear and went down to fix breakfast for the two.

A banana, a glass of orange juice, a piece of buttered toast, applesauce, and two fried eggs for each, Hermione smiled as their eyes lit up at the feast before them. Their giggles and cheers of glee made the work of cooking it all the muggle way worth the effort. Sure, she could just give a flick of her wand and it'd be done; but she liked cooking and cleaning the muggle way. It kept her mind occupied, and when it was over she always felt better.

She looked over their outfits before doing their hair. Sky had chosen her green summer dress and flip flops while Austin preferred her cut-off jean shorts and a red t-shirt that had a lion on it. For some reason Hermione was over done with pride at seeing her little girl choose a Gryffindor-type shirt.

Just as Hermione was preparing to do Sky's hair, the little girl turned to her. "Mummy? Why don't we hab a daddy?"

"Huh? Why would you ask me that, baby girl?" Hermione tried to stay calm and understanding. If she were to get upset or emotional, she could scare Sky from talking about him. She had every right to know, Hermione was well aware; she just wanted to wait until the girl was a bit older.

"Well, aw the udder kidz hab a mummy an' a daddy. Moegun, Austin, an' me onwe hab mummiez." She reasoned.

"Yes, but what made you want to ask me now?"

"Well, dat man… ummm… Zanduh's daddy… he ass'ked me what my mummy's name was."

"What did you tell him."

"I toad him dat youah name wuz "Mummy" becaaze dat's wut Austin an' me caw you." Hermione couldn't help the giggle that came forth. She could only imagine Draco's frustrated face at asking a four year old about her mum. "But he ass'ked me my daddy's name too. I didun get a chance too ansuh him dou. But I didun know wut I shood hab toad him."

"Honey, you don't have to tell him anything. He doesn't need to be prying."

"I know. But it made me tink. We doan hab a daddy."

"You have a daddy just like every other kid, but he's just not living with us."

"But Tywer an' Kwisten daddy doan wib wif dem. Dey stiww know him dou." Hermione couldn't argue. She wasn't so aware that Sky and Austin knew so much about the relationship of the other kids' parents. "You say we hab won. Did he not wub us wike you doo?" Her eyes were wide, tears starting to well up. "Is me an' Austin bad, mummy? Is dat why he weft us?" The tears were rolling down her face now, her brows bunched together and her face just imitated that of a person in pain. She was not only a scared child; she felt guilty for things she had not done.

"Oh, Baby." Hermione took the crying child into her arms, trying to shield out the pain that was unavoidable. "Your daddy loves you very much, sweetheart. Mummy just, needs some time to organize her thoughts before she brings him back into her life. I'm not ready to see him again."

Hermione suddenly felt like the bad guy in all of this. When did she change from the victim to the perpetrator? When did her feelings affect her daughters this much? She felt inadequate as a mother, selfish as a human, and suddenly she thought that she was lower than dirt; that the worms were worth more than her to the world.

She had spent this whole time trying to protect her daughters. She had even gone so far as to not date other men. She knew she couldn't be single for the rest of her life; the idea of being a crazy, old cat-lady plagued her relentlessly. After all, she was Hermione Nerdy Jean Bookworm Granger; nerds and bookworms were meant to spend their lives in solitude, right?

Hermione and her daughters spent the rest of the morning getting ready in silence and were soon ready to make their morning stop at Little Wands Daycare.

Hermione kissed her daughters goodbye and entered her office to gather her paperwork. She met Mandy's eyes and put her fingers to her head in a mock "pulling the trigger" motion. Of course, Mandy didn't understand the reference but she could sense Hermione's distress, despite her ignorance of muggle expressions and motions, and walked over giving her business partner a hug. Hermione nearly lost her cool, practically breaking down right there at work; but she willed herself to keep her emotions in check. They would have some girl time, gossiping and comfort foods were a given. Hermione was sure she would feel better.

What she didn't count on was running into Draco in the lobby, standing upright as he released Zander from a hug.

A/N::

I'm sorry its short guys! It barely broke 1000 words. But I REALLY wanted to get another chapter out before this weekend was over for me. I have a feeling this week is going to be pretty busy. We're starting a new lesson in Japanese and I need to really focus until I get the material down. I would have written about a thousand words more tonight, but my head is pounding and every time I look at a computer screen my head feels like exploding so I can only take it in small increments right now. Fuckin migraines.

Also, I'm going through a bit of a depression stage. I don't really know what's wrong with me but I feel pretty awful about everything right now. I guess you could say I'm feeling really hardcore emo without the "hate the world and everyone in it" and the "I want to cut myself" moods. All that leaves is whiney, depressed, hate my life. Right? Yeah… that's about right.

Some people have been asking me about my use of ",ne?" I'm really sorry about that ^^; It's an author slip. I'm in the habit of typing the way I talk. Some of my old fictions (which I will spare you the agony of reading x.x ) say "aye" in like, every other statement it was there because I was in a habit of saying "aye" as "yes." Well, after studying Japanese and having to say "ne" at the end of half my statements, it's kind of become second nature to me and I put it in without thinking about it. Saying "ne" is like a rhetorical confirmation at the end. Similar to how we say "It's a beautiful day, huh?" or "Great weather, don't you agree?" Stuff like that. =) Sorry about the confusion.

My shout out to bloodyphoenixofhell::

Hi. =) I really appreciate your taking the time to respond to my fic with constructive criticism. It really means a lot to me that you took the time to read and review this and that you were so honest. I kind of felt the need to defend/justify (whichever you prefer) myself juuuuust a tad bit.

A few things some people miss when reading is my publish date and such. The first several chapters of Part One were—for lack of a better word—shit. I can't believe people read them and actually like them and even still I get reviews about people who got hooked reading the first chapter of part one. I'm like, "really? O.o'' it can't be that good." I look back on it and think, "those first several chapters are shit." But, even now, looking back on all of part one, except the last like 2 or 3 chapters, I'm thinking is crappy. Honestly, the rest of Part One got so chaotic because I have piss poor planning when it comes to stories.

I originally intended for this to just be a short 5 or so chapters of pointless smut. But I abandoned it along the way and about a year later, I picked it back up when I randomly got a review from someone who wanted me to write more. It just kind of spiraled into this odd, roller coaster plot that came from my twisted little mind. I generally prefer writing pointless—almost, but not quite, plotless—fictions. I decided to finish part one rather fast and get to the real train of thought I had when I chose to make this more than the pure smut.

I don't really think its correct to say I have horrific grammar though. When it came to writing essays and other serious writings, I took the time and attention necessary to write well. My teachers, going back to the fifth grade, were always impressed and complimenting my writing. It's continued to this very day as I am preparing to enter my fourth year of university. My English professors have critiqued my papers harder than all the other classmates because I showed amazing talents writing, and they always used my essays as examples for my classmates to look on and better enhance their own writing.

The difference is, I write well when I'm serious; but fanfiction is just a release for me. It's simply just a way to occupy my time and enhance my imagination. You are absolutely correct in assuming I don't look over my work after I type. If I did, my work would look way closer to a professional level. But to be bluntly honest, I am lazy. I don't put a lot of serious work into my fanfictions just because it is a way for me to have fun. I'm not out to impress my teachers and since I'm not trying to make a buck off of this, I don't see the need to try and polish every detail. Sure, I could hire a beta. But then updates would take longer in between and I like updating as soon as I write the chapter.

It's obvious that even with my non-polished grammar and ridiculous amount of typos, I have a large following here. As long as I'm having fun, and readers can understand what I meant and they enjoy my writing, I'm happy. Hell, I think I'm tons better at this writing thing than Stephanie Meyer, and she got famous. She actually has, printed in the first Twilight book, "… more beautifuller…" I read that, and promptly put the book down and never read another word, nor do I watch the movies (though that argument is neither here nor there).

I appreciate your saying I have potential. It really does mean a lot to me. It makes me want to think a little harder about being more accurate with my typing when it comes to fictions. But as long as I'm not making money, I don't see the need to try and be polished up.

You were asking me to contact you if I were interested in writing? I'm not exactly sure what you're implying with that, but I'm willing to hear you out if you're still willing to talk with me. My only problem with breaking free of fanfictions is I have a lot of issues with Character creation and getting all the back story stuff done. I just don't feel creative or original enough. That's why I tend to do fantictions; because while I love writing and making plots, I have serious weakness with the previous issue and fanfiction allows me to just borrow premade characters that everyone knows the background story for. It basically has everything set and I just get the joy of creating a plot. That and I feel Draco and Hermione were destined to be together LOL. So, I don't really have any original fiction. Well, send me a pm if you want to talk more.