Dedicated to Nico Davis. R.I.P 8/6/90-6/13/06.
Ch Seven: A Major Breakthrough
"You know you end up here an awful lot," a cold voice stated. "In fact, your whole family does."
"What's your point Granger?"
"You're family is probably cursed." Surprisingly, there was no answer. "What happened this time?"
"I don't know. Leah was talking to me and then suddenly I hear the girl who hates me comment on how much I end up in the hospital wing."
"Oh." Lenie was silent before she said. "Your father's here. Something to do with Nora. I was in mum's office when he showed up. She told me to 'Run along and check up on Malie.' At first, I didn't know who she was talking about then your father said, 'What's wrong with Maliegha?' Mum gave me that stern get-out-of-here look, so I went and I came here."
"Professor Granger called me Malie?" Mal asked.
"Yeah. Why?"
"It's nothing, except…" Mal paused and looked at Lenie. "Only Father calls me that."
"Oh." Neither said anything for nearly an hour. And a rather awkward hour it was. "If everything is okay with you, or err, at least relatively, I think I'll be going." Lenie paused. "Good-bye then." Mal didn't reply so Lenie went to leave. A curtain had been drawn around Mal's bed and Lenie went to slip out between the opening. Once she drew the curtain she starred, a confused and slightly fearful expression leaping to her face. She pulled the curtain so hard that the entire structure came tumbling down.
"What the..." Mal exclaimed as she jumped into place next to Lenie. "What the heck did you do, Granger?"
"I didn't do anything," she replied hostilely. Mal rolled her eyes and turned back to lay on her bed, but it was gone. They were left in a small room surrounded by a brick wall. She slid to the floor with an indistinguishable expression.
Maliegha sat in perfect silence for who knows how long, with Leniera sitting stiffly next to her. Maliegha's mind had too many thoughts for her to handle. After what felt like decades of thinking it finally hit her. "Lenie?" Mal whispered. "When I bumped into you in the hall, the first day my hair turned blonde, you said the password to the Head's office was Dragon Star. Do you know why she chose that?"
An agitated voice answered. "Dragon is mum's favorite constellation. When I was little, she and I would sit outside and just look at the stars. I could never actually see it though. It was too undistinguished, too blended in. Why do you ask? Is there something overly significant about it?" Leniera stated the last bit with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Ignoring Lenie's tone, Mal replied, "When Father moved us back here, Nora and I were feeling very low. Braiden was only four, I don't think he really understood the fact that his mother had died, and he was never going to see her again. Anyway, it was our first night in England,-Braiden had already been put to sleep- and Father took Nora and me to the balcony. He pointed to the sky and says 'When I was younger I would sit here and look for my favorite constellation and when I saw it, I could always see the eyes of the ones I loved staring out at me. Just look for Draco, and the ones who are gone will always find you. Remember, my darling Malie and my princess Nora, that not all Dragons are evil.' I didn't quite understand it at the time. In fact I didn't truly understand it till just now; I just thought Draco Malfoy loved himself a bit too much. But what you've said has given proof to my theory. What if the ones who are gone didn't mean the ones who are dead? You just said you would sit out with your mum and she would gaze at Dragon. Father told me once that his name meant Dragon; so I think Dragon and Draco are the same constellation. I mean if Draco means Dragon and he did say not all Dragons are evil while referring to the constellation Draco." Maliegha took a long breathe and looked into Leniera's eyes.
"I'm confused," Lenie replied. "Are you suggesting that Hermione Granger would be searching for Draco Malfoy, her long term enemy, when she gazed up at her stars? That, Maliegha Malfoy, is utterly ridiculous." Lenie's voice grew angrier with every word she spoke. "You've read the entries, you've learned exactly what I have. They hated each other. How do you get over a hatred like that?"
"I don't know," answered a still calm Maliegha. "But we did." The anger drained from Lenie in an instant. "And I remember an entry about lying or pretending or something. She said something like 'It might just be easier to-'"
"To pretend you weren't you. If I had pretended to be a half-blood, Draco Malfoy couldn't make fun of me and call me mudblood. If I pretended I didn't have know the answer, people couldn't resent me for being an intimidating know-it-all and I might actually have girls for friends. If I pretended to not appear so god damn perfect all the time, I might not have to cry myself to sleep because no one likes me. On second thought, I don't think anything could make people like me, even me pretending to be someone that I'm not. I'd have to be a dam great pretender to do so anyway." Leniera finsished. "I memorized the passage; something about it reminded me of my mother even to this day." Maliegha looked over at her former enemy. "We need to stop these lies. We need to stop pretending. We need to know the truth. And we need to known it now," Lenie whispered. "I think I'm ready to hear your theory now."
Maliegha spit out the words she had been keeping in for too long. She explained her ideas for nearly a quarter of an hour, meanwhile Leniera sat looking as content as possible. Once she finished, she drew another long breathe and gazed at the girl sitting next to her. "Phase one," Mal stated after a momentary pause, "Get Leniera to believe you. Check. Phase two, find the proof you know is out there." Her rich eyes locked with the mirror image ones of Leniera.
"I think we need to find a way out of here first," Lenie replied. "And then we shall take to phase two."
Getting out was easier than expected. The two fell asleep and when they awoke everything was back to normal. Well, maybe not but at least they were back in the hospital wing. After begging Madam Pompfrey for permission to let Mal leave, the two ran as quick as lightning up to the Head Dormitory.
The instant they got up to Mal bedroom, they began rummaging through the boxes they had been sent again. Three hours had passed and they had yet to find anything. Finally, out of anger, Lenie picked up one of the boxes and threw it across the room. Mal snapped her head at Lenie, than let her eyes rest on the box. All the paper and such were now strewn across the floor, the box open. Mal walked over to the box and noticed that there was a small flap at the bottom. She pulled it away and there was a photograph.
"What's that?" Lenie asked coming up behind her. Her jaw dropped. Lenie grapped it and looked at it closer, allowing Mal to notice something on the back.
"Charlotte Rove, Evan McKally, Maliegha and Leniera," Mal read.
"Charlotte and Evan," Lenie repeated. "That's it!"
"Dragon Star," Lenie spat out. The gargoyles sprung aside and Lenie ran up into the place she had been so many times before; it was the place where her mother had resided for the past eight years. The two girls ran up to her the Head's office, Leniera in front. She stopped short, tears falling at the sight she saw; Maliegha bumped gently into her back. Peering around the girl in front of her, Maliegha saw her father with tears in his eyes. Hermione Granger was holding his hand, trying to calm him. 'He must of just found out about Nora,' Mal thought. Maliegha looked Leniera, saw her state, and grabbed the flimsy paper from Leniera's hand.
Hermione Granger looked up and pondered, "Leniera? Maliegha?"
"Please," begged Mal, chocking back tears. "We need you to explain, to tell us the truth. Why is it that we have the same birthday, our baby pictures are practically identical, and… and…" She thrust the paper that Lenie had been holding into Hermione's hand. It was a picture of two newborn babies, that Leniera and Maliegha recognized as themselves, with whom they presumed were the parents, two aggressive figures with black hair. "How did you…?" "Please. Please explain, you owe us that much. We know basically everything already. Your muggle life after Hogwarts, the fact that you never took your N.E.W.T's, and that you fell in love with someone named Evan McKally. And you," she raged, rounding on her father. "You were an ardent Death Eater who fell in love with a girl you thought was muggle, Charlotte Rove. You never officially graduated from here either." Maliegha stopped her rant, breathing hard. There was dead silence for several moments till Leniera finally spoke up.
"He's my dad, isn't he? Draco Malfoy is my father? And you're Mal's mother. And the two of us are twins. That's why I'm in Slytherin, that's why you never told me about him." Lenie looked into her mothers eyes. "That's why you love Dragon," she added.
The two adults were speechless. Hermione had released her grip on Draco Malfoy's hand and turned to a drawer. She opened it up and revealed a stone basin. As soon as she set it back down, Hermione prodded the surface with her wand and beckoned both girls over. "Follow me," She whispered and fell headfirst into the basin.
Lenie let out a small scream when her mum disappeared. "She said to follow her," Draco Malfoy said kindly. With a nod at her prospect father, Leniera mimicked her mother's movement. Maliegha followed a moment later; Draco being the last to fall into Hermione's Memory. One black haired figure was walking while another was in a heap on the floor.
"I'm going. We can't be together. The two of us will never be an option." The boy spat out making his way to the door. The girl nodded in agreement. "I don't want us to be. I want Charlotte and Evan to be… Evan…" she repeated in realization.
"Good-bye," He whispered as he stood by the doorway. "I'll miss Charlotte Rove, always and forever."
"Evan... Dr-Dra-ac-co, I have one more thing to tell you," she sobbed loudly before revealing, "I'm pregnant."
"It was about five months then," the present Hermione Granger said as the memory changed.
"I should go check on Nora," Draco stated in an emotionlessly once they exited the pensive.
"Yes, I'm sure they are expecting you," Hermione replied in the same flat tone.
"I'll be in touch with you soon Malie," Draco said into the fireplace.
"No you won't. You have Nora and Braiden to care about. You don't need me. I guess I finally understand why you never cared about me. It was because I was her daughter. You just didn't need to care that much. Or maybe you just didn't want to," Mal snapped as she ran from the Headmistress' office.
"You of all people Mum. Was lying really worth it?" Leniespat beforefollowing Mal out.
"I guess not," Hermione replied long after Lenie had left. She took a seat and looked over at Draco. "Why did we lie Draco? It seems like everything that happened back then is such a blur."
"You don't remember? We lied because we hate each other. We did when we were in school. We did when we met during the final battle. We did when we figured out who the other was. We did when Lenie and Malie were born. We lied because it was the only option we found."
"How could it have been the only one we found? We were the smartest in our year."
"We? I never thought I'd live to see the day when Hermione Granger offered Draco Malfoy a compliment."
"What has gotten into you? You're not that heartless!"
"Yeah, Granger, I am!"
"We loved each other once."
"I can't love anyone, Granger. I don't have a heart, remember?" With that Draco stepped in the fireplace and disappeared in a flash of green flames.
"My father is awful," Mal stated as she watched Draco Malfoy disappear. She glanced over to Lenie, the two who were hidden in the outer room of the Headmistress' office.
"But he's my father too now, isn't he? Come on, we should go before my mu… our mu… Professor Granger comes out looking for us," Lenie answered. "And trust me she will."
The two left and went to the Head's Dormitory. As soon as they got there, Mal whipped out her wand, and soon everything she owned was packed up into her trunk. "What are you doing?" Lenie asked.
"I'm leaving. I can't be here anymore. I can't be here with her or where my father can find me."
"That makes you just like her, you know. Running from your problems was the exact same thing Hermione Granger did."
"I guess so." Mal said after a long pause. "I must really be her daughter after all."
"Apparently." Lenie frowned as the word left her lips.
"Come with me."
"I can't do that. I made a promise to myself that I would never be my mother. I have to at least graduate before I decide to run away from my life."
"I'll keep in touch."
"No."
"No?" Mal repeated.
"If you keep in touch then Mu… Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy can find you. I don't want them to find you. When I'm done here, I'll find you. I promise and I always keep my promises." Mal nodded. The two sisters hugged for the first and last time. Mal smiled as she grabbed her now shrunken trunk. Mal smiled and disappeared in the same puff of green smoke her father had not that long ago.
A/n: Once again, I'm here asking for you to review. Surely you must have some sort of comment about the story. I promise you you'll make my day. Thanks to contagiousbeauty, Zagreb-girl, ImperialGoddess-123 for the reviews.