As usual, I still do not own Harry Potter or any of (Our Queen) J.K. Rowling's character's. I do have ownership of original plot lines and original characters.
Draco had been pacing in front of his personal floo for half an hour debating whether or not he should visit Hermione. He had already sent her an owl explaining that he survived Astoria, and they could continue work today, but breaking off his relationship with Astoria had not gone as he thought it would, and since they ended last night, all he wanted to do was tell Hermione.
After another five minutes of pacing, he quickly threw the floo powder in and shouted her address before he could back out again.
He walked straight through to her living room surprised she had left the floo open. He was about to call out for her when he heard her. Her voice was still rough from sleep, and she was coaxing Rose from bed. "Rosie. It's time to get up for school." She walked out of the open door with his daughter half asleep over her arm, neither one noticing him.
Seeing the pouting dopey little girl, her platinum hair in disarray, clutching Hermione while mumbling something about waffles made Draco's heart swell. That was his daughter. She was perfect and beautiful, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and never let her go. He was in love. The few seconds he saw her before Hermione rounded the corner to the kitchen was enough for him to know that the little girl in front of him was his everything, and he would do anything for her.
He almost followed, never wanting to lose sight of his little girl again, but he knew that he was unannounced and not suppose to see her. He was still listening to their morning routine as he tip-toed back to the floo. Rosalinda was whining about wanting raspberries on her waffles, Hermione's tinkling laugh ran through the small, empty apartment, and the soft banging of cabinets could be heard as Hermione started breakfast. This was everything Draco ever wanted, and it took all of his self control to throw the floo powder in and travel back to the Manor. Upon arriving in his personal sitting room, he fell into his sofa and let out a strangled sob.
(~)
Hermione thought she heard footsteps, but upon a silent, wandless Homenum Revelio, she saw nothing and continued on with their breakfast.
Rosalinda was particularly cute that morning. Usually an early riser, she was dozing on and off while at the table, her requests for various toppings on her morning waffles muffled by her folded arms. Hermione took a minute to just watch the little girl. She never wanted to forget these moments as she was not sure how long they would last. With a sigh, she continued on with making waffles which slowly brought Rose into wakefulness. By the end of their meal, Rose was excitedly babbling on about what she was going to do at school. Apparently, she had the most occurrences of accidental magic, so she received extra attention after she turned another child into a blueberry. Hermione couldn't contain her laughter, imagining a toddler puffing up into a blueberry, and Rose beamed up at her, proud she could make her guardian laugh.
"Ready for school?" Hermione asked, grabbing Rose's bag of parchment and coloring quills.
"Yup," she replied animatedly and took a hold of Hermione's hand, ready for apparition.
They spun away to Little Wings, both witches excited for the day ahead.
(forward)
"This complicates things," Kingsley groaned, rubbing his hand over his face in agitation. Of course the little girl's mother doesn't show up until we can see a clear end to the case. Then, she insists on sticking her nose in a confidential case, and can't get it through her head that her bloody insistent interference could kill her daughter, he mused. He let out a calming breath before returning his attention to Hermione in front of him. There was no need to be irritated with her as she had not done anything wrong.
"I propose that we bring her into custody. That way she cannot endanger Rosalinda or herself," Hermione said purposefully, interrupting his train of thought.
Kingsley let the thought sink in for a moment. He contemplated the consequences of bringing the woman in. Can we legally hold her? She is impeding a confidential case, but she is the girl's mother. Does she have the right to endanger her daughter? Kingsley thought. He cleared his throat and replied, "I will contact my law advisor to make sure we can legally hold Ms. Morandi. If we can, I will send aurors to bring her in, but I want you to continue as if we cannot. Keep holding firm. Love can blind us, and she needs to know that her love for her daughter needs to include letting her daughter rest in capable hands until she is fully out of danger."
Hermione nodded solemnly and was about to get up and say her goodbyes when Kingsley stopped her with a hand. She settled back down, and he continued, "There are a few more matters we need to discuss. First, I have received your request to increase Joseph's pay. I have accepted, and the request is now being sent through payroll to make sure we have the budget to support his raise."
"Thank you so much," Hermione beamed, gratitude washing off her. She was an incredibly giving person, and it pleased the Minister to see her so joyous at being able to properly reward her employee for hard work.
"Yes, well I hope he gets it," Kingsley smiled back at his favorite employee, not that he would tell anyone that, and carried on with his speech. "Second, I want a scheduled meeting with you every Monday until Mr. Malfoy and yourself must go searching for the binding object. Once you both begin your journey, I want an owl twice a week with updates. All of the proper precautions put on the correspondence. Because, from now on you control when you come into the office, aside from the meetings. Your job is increasingly becoming out of the office, and knowing your work ethic, you're not screwing around on hours. So, when you find it fit to come in you can, but you do not need to until this case is solved. My only request is that you meet with me before you try to find the object."
Hermione's eyes were tearing up. She was so happy that she finally had a boss that trusted her to this extent. Yet, he still cared enough about her to ask to hear from her regularly as to make sure she was safe despite his busy schedule. Though it was awfully unprofessional, she got up and gave Kingsley a back-breaking hug. She couldn't seem to thank him enough for the kindness he had shown her in their short time working together. She let go after her gave an awkward cough, and she would have been embarrassed had he not been trying to hide a smile himself.
"So," she began. "Today will be more research. Unless I have anything pertinent or we decide to begin our search for the binding object, I will see you Monday."
"That sounds about right," he nodded, getting up with a groan from his chair. It had been a rather long talk and his back was doing him no good. "I'll see you Monday, and if we are able to bring in Ms. Morandi I will owl you."
"Have a great day, Kingsley."
"You too, Hermione," he said with a grin. As soon as she shut the office door, however, his face fell. Now onto a day filled with incompetent employees.
(forward)
Draco was anxious to say the least. For the past two hours he was alternating between roughly running his fingers through his hair and patrolling the room where Hermione would usually floo in. He couldn't keep his mind off his daughter, and he wanted to know everything about her. Hermione was the person that could do that for him, and she seemed to be taking her sweet time in his book. Every so often, the memory of Hermione carrying Rosalinda would pop into his head and instead of mentally gushing over his daughter, his stomach would erupt into butterflies thinking about the very same woman actually being his daughter's mother, and how much joy that would bring him if it were true.
At this point, Draco could not deny that he had more than a little crush on Hermione Granger. One does not simply imagine a woman as the mother of their child, and have no desire whatsoever to snog her senseless. On that same thought, Hermione was recently out of a relationship, and he had some semblance of decency in him not to believe that she would immediately want to be with him and help him raise a daughter. But, the thought still brought him hope that at the end of all of this he might have a family, even if it was just him sharing his daughter with a mother he had only shared two interactions with.
Draco was in the middle of trying to guess Rosalinda's favorite food when Hermione stumbled through the floo. She did not notice his presence and continued scourgifying her robes. When she looked up, she finally saw him and almost jumped out of her skin while letting out a muffled scream.
"Draco!" she screeched, bewildered. "What the hell are you doing?"
Suddenly realizing just how pathetic he looked just waiting for her to arrive, he quickly made up an excuse. "I was just hiding from mother. She's not too happy with me currently."
Her expression softened, and she sat down next to him and asked jokingly, "what did you do now?"
He gave her a slight smirk and remembered what he was going to tell her about earlier when he walked into her apartment before he saw his daughter. "Well, she isn't all too happy I broke up with Astoria. I can't blame her. I didn't exactly let her down easily."
"You are kind of an arsehole," she winked cheekily.
He chuckled and continued on with his story. "Once mother found out that I was intending to break up with Astoria, but Astoria believed I was going to propose, mother made me invite her over for dinner. The dinner was horribly awkward. Somehow my mother thought that a breakup dinner should be lively and forced conversation which did not bode well. Afterward, she basically locked me in the drawing room with Astoria and made me give her an emerald necklace, which, upon giving it to Astoria made her think that we were engaged. That didn't make the 'I'm sorry I don't think we're right for each other' speech all the more terrible. She bawled her eyes out, then got raging mad, throwing a precious vase at me in the process. Overall, the night wasn't the greatest, and if I end of dead by poison, it's Astoria."
Hermione was obviously trying to conceal her giggles, but couldn't hold them in any longer once he finished his story. "Wow, Draco. You made my breakup with Ron look borderline friendly."
"At least I didn't end up in the hospital," he quipped.
"Touché."
They were both left grinning in the peaceful silence of a finished conversation, neither one wanted to speak, because they both knew that the next step was more grueling research.
Hermione finally broke the silence after a minute. "Library?"
Draco sighed, popped his back, and dramatically rolled off of the sofa that he was sitting on, fell onto the floor, then clawed his way back up to standing. His performance earned him a giggle from Hermione, and together they trudged up to the library.
By the time Hermione and Draco had made it to the library and into their respective chairs, the light-hearted exchange from earlier wore off. They eased into their normal routine, picking up the Malfoy journals, they continued where they left off and remained in studious silence for the next hour; only the soft flipping of pages and quill scratching on parchment interrupted the silence.
(forward)
Hermione was so focused, she didn't even notice Draco saying her name over and over until he shouted 'Hermione!' She flew out of her chair, knocking her quill and journal to the floor and whipped her wand out, surveying the room for danger. When her eyes landed on his body, quaking with laughter, she stuffed her wand back in its holster and sat down grumbling, "idiotic, self-centered brat" while her cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
Calming his breath, furthered by Hermione's death-glare, Draco sat upwards and told her his discovery with a cracked smile. "I found the day the laws were sealed. The third of May. So, now we need to owl other members and have them find journals that mention this date," he explained.
"That's fantastic!" she exclaimed. Her anger and humiliation had disappeared, and she started planning aloud. "Okay, I need several sheets of parchment. You write to the Slytherins, and I'll cover the rest. We will make it seem like it is for your pursuit of alchemy to the Slytherins, and I will tell the others that it is for personal research; they wouldn't question that. But, we must let them know that it's important. I don't want them taking their sweet time bringing us the journals…" Her voice faded away as she chewed on her lip in deep thought.
All the while, Draco was collecting supplies needed for their many letters. He unearthed his Malfoy family seal and specialty green wax from his desk drawer, fished out Hermione's simple 'HG' seal and purple wax from her bag, and set out several sheets of fine parchment on his expansive work desk. She was still pacing in thought once he was finished. "How much thought does a couple of letters take?" he thought in exasperation.
After waiting patiently for a solid minute for Granger to stop overthinking, he could not stand her fretfulness, so he got up and pulled her over to the desk by her shoulders. She squawked, but he continued to drag her until she plopped down roughly in the chair he previously occupied. "What was that for?" she asked indignantly.
He looked at her incredulously. "Because I was afraid for your health," he drawled sarcastically, sitting at the other chair he pulled over.
She glowered at him and snapped, "No need for sass."
"When you pace for five solid minutes about a couple of letters, there is a need for much more than 'sass'," he sneered. "Now write."
Hermione surprisingly followed his command and began scribbling her note to Neville. She was nearly finished with her first letter when she turned to see Draco still staring at her in disbelief. "What now?" she asked letting out a long sigh.
"You listened to me," he said, stunned.
"Oh, get over yourself," she smirked and flicked her hair behind her shoulder.
"Now who's being sassy," Draco quipped, a smile growing on his face.
She merely ignored him, and after a moment, he followed suit and began writing his own letters. Within, thirty minutes they were finished, but leaning back in their chairs chatting.
"So, what's Rosalinda's favorite food?" Draco asked casually.
Hermione thought briefly before replying with a smile. "Definitely blueberries. So much so that she actually had a bout of accidental magic at school and turned another child into a big blueberry." She giggled just thinking about Rosalinda's story. "She likes the additional attention she gets because she is the one that has the most magic accidents."
Draco was bent over laughing hard enough to get a stitch in his side. The thought of his daughter laughing wickedly as another child turned into a big, bright blueberry was enough to send him into hysterics. He was incredibly proud of his powerful little witch. When he finally regained control, he saw Hermione smiling down at him affectionately. Hermione's eyes were crinkled on the sides, and her cheeks were pink from laughing. His heart skipped a beat.
"I'm going to miss her," she said, her eyes suddenly glazing over and looking far off with nostalgia.
Draco looked perplexed. Harry had told him that she had grown rather fond of Rose, but now he was seeing her care first hand. It was beautiful. "I think you forget that you have 'forever visiting rights'," he said, imitating her voice.
Her eyes were still slightly teary, but she smiled graciously. "Thank you."
"Anytime." She was staring at him oddly. His heart skipped another beat.
He leaned in. When their lips met, a sweet, jittery feeling filled him. It was a slow kiss, both knowing it was too soon, but neither wanting to lose the precious moment. Her hand fluttered up to cup his cheek which she stroked gently. He caught her soft bottom lip between his teeth and nipped tenderly to which Hermione released a short sigh. They pulled apart, resting their foreheads together, hearts beating wildly. Hermione was the first to speak. "I think we need to take this very slow," she breathed.
Draco smiled. She didn't say this was a mistake. She didn't say she regretted anything. She inadvertently said that they had something. "Agreed."
"Meaning," she explained, pulling away from him, "no more of that for a bit. We both just got out of relationships. I'm not out for a rebound. If this is going to happen, it needs to happen slowly. I want to get to know you as someone besides my old school bully and a coworker."
"I never apologized for that, by the way," Draco mumbled. "I was a mean little shit."
Hermione's tinkling laugh ran through his ears. He looked back up at her, as he was expecting her to be somber and reprimand him for being a menace as a child, but instead she giggled, "you were a piece of work, weren't you?"
"You know," he began uneasily. Draco was not known for his bravery, so moments like these did not come naturally to him. "I would like to get to know you as more than the insufferable bookworm I made fun of in school."
Hermione stopped laughing and gazed at him wide-eyed. "You're serious about this?" she murmured, shocked but flattered.
"Of course," he replied with conviction. He assumed she would have seen past his mask and recognized the border-line disgusting affection he carried for her, but alas it seemed that she was not as perceptive as he thought. She will learn, he thought.
His heart leapt at her shy smile. "How about we get back to work?" she suggested, looking with new eyes at their multiple letters spread across their shared desk.
"I think that would be advisable," he replied cheekily. She gently shoved him with a snort, and he added, "However, I think we have no where else to go without a hoard of owls."
She pretended to really think over his statement, and right before he would have groaned that she was overthinking simple concepts, she hopped out of her chair and said, "ready to go to the post then?"
"I think the Malfoy's have enough owls," he drawled snottily, rising elegantly and walking past her out of the library doors.
He could hear her following grumpily behind him, muttering, "stuck up rich kids."
He couldn't help but chuckle and reply, "rich men, now."
He couldn't quite hear, but he would have bet half of his inheritance that she giggled and faintly called him something akin to an arse.
(backward)
Stifled wailing could be heard through the solid mahogany door to Lucius Malfoy's office. He was currently holed up in his study attempting to avoid the rather melodramatic break up happening in the drawing room with his only solace from the woman's cries being his prized bottle of aged firewhisky. He was rather upset that he was forced to use it so soon, but the woman was entirely bothersome, and the only substance that could fully drown out her misery was a fine, stiff drink.
Lucius would never tell Narcissa, but he was rather pleased that his son was ending it with Astoria. Pureblood or not, she was a nuance. She was poisoning their son with pro-muggle propaganda, and he was not having it. While he understood that killing muggles and mudbloods was not the correct path, he could not even consider the idea of believing that they were close to the same social status as purebloods.
He was opening up a particularly nasty book on torture, The Oldest Arte, when Narcissa slipped into his study wearing a look of pure mischief when she turned to him.
"Lucius, darling. How has your day been?" she asked silkily, sliding into one of his plush, leather chairs that decorated his office.
"Fine," he replied rather stiffly, assessing how much danger she posed. When, she did not outright bite his head off for something, he decided to play along with her game, as someone else must have gotten a hold of his wife's evil attention. "How was yours', my beautiful wife?"
She preened under his compliment, and the malicious glint of gossip in her eye faded for a moment to show love swell up inside her. She really loved it when he flattered her, it reminded her of when they were young and in love with no problems in the world. However, the tender emotion faded out of her eyes and her evil smirk was back. "I'm glad to hear that your day was satisfactory, dear. Today, I saw the most peculiar scene, and I thought my husband may be interested."
Lucius perked up in his chair and sat his tumbler of firewhisky to the side, eager to hear his wife's gossip. Despite his many years learning information in the Ministry through bribing high ranking officials, he could never quite top Narcissa's gossip ring. He had no idea how she got her information, but she was the best of the best if he needed information.
"Well," she began, enticing him closer. "I was almost to Twilfitt and Tatting's to get my robes for tonight," she gestured alluringly to her intricate grey robes, then once her outfit received the proper attention from her husband, she continued, "when I saw Miss Hermione Granger in a rather impassioned conversation with a strange woman."
Narcissa paused, annoyed that Lucius was paying more attention to the curve of her robes than her juicy scandal. While she would usually find his current behavior titillating, she was in no mood. She spent most of her day researching and did not want her efforts put to waste, so she snapped her fingers and gave him a 'my eyes are up here-' glare. Draco got his flair for dramatics from his mother.
Once attention was properly conferred to her story, she continued, "Miss Granger and the woman were obviously arguing. The other woman was on the verge of tears, and Miss Granger walked away in a huff. As Miss Granger is not known for being needlessly cruel, I assume that she was denying something from the woman, and Miss Granger believed she was doing the right thing. However, I couldn't figure out what Miss Granger has that she would deny to a woman in need. Usually, Hermione Granger is a humanitarian and would give her left kidney if someone needed it. However, with research, I discovered that she is now in possession of a young girl."
Lucius's face may have been blank, as usual, but inside he was gaping at his wife. How she put together this entire story in less than a day was nothing less than impressive. The more she spoke, the more he thanked Merlin he had yet to truly piss her off. Imagining her nefarious genius being turned against him almost made him shiver with fear.
"I remembered that she had an interview in the Prophet about her little cousin living with her, but when I was walking back to the apparition point, I heard two aurors conversing about a little girl who Miss Granger helped catch. They were both wondering if the girl made it back to her mother. Then it clicked," Narcissa smiled with malicious glee. "The woman who Granger was talking to must be the mother, and if she created a story about the girl being her cousin, the girl must be under protection for a reason."
Lucius was at a loss for words. He knew that letting Narcissa's beauty overcloud her intelligence in his perception was a fatal mistake, and her genius deductive skills was proof of that knowledge. The positively evil smirk she wore told him that the story was not yet at its end.
"Would you take a trip to the Ministry for me tomorrow?" His wife asked tenderly, but with a devilish undertone.
"Of course, darling."
/Thank you all for sticking with this fan fiction even when I take super long to update. Please continue reviewing and favoriting this fan fiction if you are so inclined. Two quick notes: First, I actually have spacing and indications of time change when I write this. I have for a long time, but I have no idea how to make upload how I see it. Second, This last chapter has taken so long because I really have to plan the rest of this, and I want to make it perfect. So, prepare for a lot of action :D.
I hope you have a fandiddlytastic week and everything is going great for you!/
(If you have any advice on how to upload the breaks in time, please DM me. I'm awful with technology, and I have a Mac which makes it all worse.)
