A/N: Hey, it's been a long, long two weeks. Drove for lots of hours on little sleep to get to campus for another school year. Yay! I made it and it seems like I haven't stopped moving since last Sunday morning to get things in order. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Also, I didn't intend to advertise for other author's but I like to share what I find if I think it's good. A recent one is called This Curse to Bear by frostykitten. Rated T and very entertaining, in my opinion. Oh yeah, love your avatar Chanatell! Misha Collins is amazing!

Disclaimer: Not Rowling. She actually knows her grammar.

Chapter 3: The Rose Giver

Draco plopped down on his bed that was a good size fit for a Malfoy. He felt a little drained even though his day wasn't any busier than any other. It had to be the near shock of seeing Hermione pregnant when he felt like not too long ago she was too busy in her career for any type of romantic relationship with anyone.

He felt he had to get some answers. It would be prying, yes, but the war hero had become as close to his family and there weren't many that could consider themselves close to the Malfoy family. He and his parents held their personal friends very close and judging by his parent's reactions they certainly liked her despite her being Muggle-born. Besides that, he was sure any information regarding her condition wouldn't put him in any danger. There was no way the two of them had been so close as to warrant any serious risk to his possible relapse into a coma.

He wondered what kind of Muggle she had gone out with. Where did she even visit with Muggles besides her parents? All her friends were wizards and witches. Wasn't she all alone during that early time period during first year in Hogwarts and everyone considered her the annoying teacher's pet who no one wanted to hang out with? Until Potter and the ginger, of course. He wished he could say that he would have been friends with her if she hadn't been friends with them, but that would be a lie. She was a Gryffindor and a Muggle-born one at that. His eleven year old self wouldn't have even bothered to know who she was if not for her two best friends. In a grudging way, he had to thank them for their friendship to her. How else would he have noticed what a great witch she was? Classes they had together, most likely. The Yule Ball would have caught his attention to her, definitely, because his attention was on her for the majority of the dance, though he would never admit it to anyone.

Draco felt his eyes droop with drowsiness as he thought of his musings of the different ways of getting he could have noticed her and of the possible ways Hermione got together with the unknown man. He knew her relationships were her business and that he shouldn't be bothered with the thought of her with someone as much as he was but he couldn't help himself. Before he could continue that line of thought, his mind forced a scene that he couldn't tell was either a daydream or a memory.

He was at the ministry on her floor. He came under the guise of discussing business and was confident until he stepped onto the floor that was decorated a horrid pink and had annoying decorations all over the place. Weren't adults supposed to be over the whole child and teen practice of celebrating Valentine's Day? Judging by the red, pink, and white confetti falling from the ceiling, they weren't.

Draco was half contemplating turning around but then caught site of the person he wanted to see. She looked a little annoyed at the choice of décor if her irked glances at the desks and confetti were anything to go by. He watched in amusement as she brought her hand up to her hair every few seconds to paw at the paper that landed in it.

When she disappeared into the privacy of her office, one of the few on that floor, he quickly made his way over; ignoring the questioning looks he received from her coworkers. He was about to knock on the half open door when he heard a sound of delight behind the entryway. He poked his head in to find that she was reading a card that came, apparently, with the arrival of a vase filled with a dozen big, red roses. Jealousy and frustration flashed through his veins at whoever sent her the flowers. Just when he had found the perfect opportunity to convey how much he liked her, albeit on a cliché date and manner, someone had to get in his way. He accidentally leaned against the door, which gave way and creaked, making him step into the room and turned Hermione's attention from the card to him.

"Draco," she said, her eyebrows rising in surprise at his presence of being in her office. "What are you doing here? There's nothing wrong with that contract with the Gringotts goblins, is there?"

Draco smiled at the question. Of course there was nothing wrong with the contract. Hermione had those goblins gnashing their teeth at how meticulous it was; no loopholes of any kind throughout the four-foot document for them to find if it was in the short creature's favor. Even his father gave her praise when the goblins couldn't reject the contract, given that his family had always had to revise at least twice to get the approval of the Gringotts employees due to some wording that could be twisted in Malfoy's favor. The goblins prided themselves on lowering wizards and witches with the 'mistakes' they seemed 'certain' to make. It was a wonderful day for them all.

Draco shook his head in answer. "The contract was perfect. I just came by to give you something."

Draco revealed the journal he had been hiding in his right hand and handed it to her. Her eyes widened when she opened the pages and saw the name written there; the journal obviously the original, judging by the faded cover and pages darkened by age.

"Where did you get Bridget Wenlock's journal?" Hermione asked in awe as she flipped through the pages with handwriting in it by the famous Arithmancer who first established the magical properties of the number seven.

"My family likes to collect historical artifacts and I noticed this in our library some time ago" Draco said, pleased with her reaction to the book. It was way better than the reaction she had to the roses. He felt smug having one up the unknown person who dared crowd in on his opportunity.

"What's this?" Hermione looked down in her hand at the rectangular object that had fallen out of the book and into her hand. It looked to be a bookmark but it was made of different shades of color from miniature flowers she had never seen before. At least not out of a book.

"Are these flowers from a Flutterby Bush? The ones that only bloom every one-hundred years" She was in awe again and it showed.

"Yeah," Draco confirmed. "Mother has a few in her garden and these bloomed recently. I shrunk and put a few stasis spells on them along with dipping them in a potion. I think they'll last for quite a while."

He felt the air knocked out of him when she suddenly hugged him. He was surprised for a few seconds but soon felt his face getting warm at their closeness as he hugged her back.

"This is amazing, Draco. I love it." Hermione raved once she pulled away, looking at the book and bookmark with happiness.

Draco felt his face form a smirk as he shot a triumphant look over at the roses that lay forgotten as if the flowers could understand his victory over them. His success was short lived, however, when he wondered if she would have hugged the person who gave her those like she hugged him. He scowled a little at the thought but schooled his features quickly.

"Who are these from," He asked, walking over to her desk and glaring down at the vase of flowers as if they had personally insulted him. The first person that flashed across his mind was the red head, but then he remembered that Hermione had said something a few days ago that indicated that that relationship had ended a number of years ago. He had wanted to ask more, but his parents were in the room and it didn't seem like the kind of conversation to be having when business was about to be discussed. He made his face neutral again before turning around to face her for her answer.

By the look on her face, Draco could tell that she had completely forgotten about the roses. His attainment of her attention to such an extent to take away her attention to the gift made him very happy. It meant the possibility that the bloke that sent them didn't mean that much to her.

"Oh, umm," Hermione said, blushing a little; Draco didn't like that one bit. "They're from a guy I've been on a few dates with."

Draco turned away from her to hide his reaction. He was more jealous than he had been before and felt like hexing the man who had sent her the dratted flowers. If he weren't an adult and a Malfoy he would have 'accidentally' nudged the vase over and then proceeded to pretend stumble a bit in 'surprise' to squish the slightly open roses under his shining shoes so they would be beyond repair. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, and before the impulse to smash the glass and flowers was too much, he caught sight of the card that she had laid down when she had taken the book and bookmark.

It was open and a cursive script wrote:

"I know how you don't particularly like the showy decorations of Valentine's Day and the fuss, but every beautiful girl deserves some roses from her admirer. –Yours Aric"

Malfoy was about to turn again but noticed a little arrow at the bottom of the card indicating to turn it around. What he found there almost had him crumbling the card up in a small ball. As it was he left a big crease in it from where his thumb and forefinger held it in place.

"P.S. – Be mine. I meant what I said last Friday. Be my girlfriend."

"What's his name, if you don't mind my asking," Draco said as nonchalantly as he could while he set the card down and pressed it a little to even out his crease and the fact that it had been open. He made it look like he were looking over her files and continued to block her view of what he was doing with his broad back and maneuvering his robe to take up visual space.

"Aric. He's a family friend," Hermione answered, still looking through the book with eagerness. She looked up though, when she registered the question.

"Are you two going steady; dating," Draco asked, turning to face her with a blank expression, only his eyes showing how much he wanted to hear what her answer would be.

"No, not exactly," she answered, looking a little baffled as to why he was so curious. "Why?"

"So he won't mind me doing this," Draco said before walking over, placing both of his hands on her upper arms and kissing her gently on the cheek.

He was pleased to see that her eyes had gone really wide and her mouth was slightly open, but her cheeks were soon turning red when she realized he had, indeed, planted his lips on her cheek.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Hermione," he said into her ear, making her blush more. "Don't give him an answer just yet," he added, giving away that he had read her card but not feeling bad about it. "I'll see you later."

He left the office with her still standing where she had been and walked through the department keeping his face impassive but not able to help the faint pinkness that crept into his pale cheeks.

Malfoy's eyes shot open and his breathing was labored as he lay down where he had been when the scene came to him. He quickly sat up but immediately regretted it when his head swirled a bit from moving so quickly. Looking at the clock on his nightstand told him that only half an hour had passed.

He ran his hand through his blond hair when he it dawned on him that what he had seen was a flashback and not a dream. He sat there for a while, shifting through his raging emotions left by the flashback and tried to calm them.

He apparently fancied Hermione a great deal sometime after, and not that long after, the time period he had lost his memory. As he thought more on it, he supposed it made perfect sense. His January memory and self was attracted to her and he had long since had a crush on her from school.

He liked the attention on the day he went to give her the book and he still felt the smugness of grabbing her attention to him and away from this Aric person who had sent her the roses. The Muggle. She had said "family friend", hadn't she?

He felt his breathe hitch. Didn't she say the father of her babies was a Muggle? Didn't that mean the she had turned him down in favor of the rose giver?

He felt like his heart drop into his stomach when it seemed that that was the case. He wondered what had went wrong with their date, because he was sure he would have taken her out not long after he kissed her cheek in her office. And he would have persisted, too, if she had refused him the first time he asked her out.

He lied down on his bed again only to sit right back up when he remembered that she wasn't married. What did this mean? Did the relationship between her and the Muggle not work out? Did he still have a chance with her himself?

Draco paused and then felt himself blush and put his head in his hands when he realized he much he liked her. He had wanted to smash the vase of roses and hex a man for showing interest in her, for crying out loud. This was worse than his jealousy in fourth year when she had that thing with Krum.

He sighed and fell back on his bed yet again. He knew how he felt now but had no idea what transpired between the two of them between the day after Valentine's Day and the day he had woken up.

He knew he didn't have many options at finding out what with the blasted curse that hit him and the threat of falling into a coma or losing memories if he tried to remember. There was still the possibility of something going wrong now due to the flashback he just had. He would have to report it to Healer Alden soon.

More than that though, he didn't know what to do with his new-found (yet actually older) interest in Hermione. He was her Healer and it would be unprofessional to make a move on a patient; a pregnant patient at that.

He found himself thinking that being her Healer didn't matter and that she looked great while pregnant, but quickly squished the thoughts. If anything he was a cautious person and always considered the ramifications of his actions. He was even starting to sound a bit creepy, even to himself and Draco Malfoy was NOT a creep. Unless… He stomped down the thought again feeling uncomfortable with his strange thought process.

Draco got up from his bed entirely and went to take a shower to distract himself from anymore wayward thoughts and inclinations. The priority was Hermione's twins and getting them to term without anything going wrong. In the morning he would work on the potions she needed to take and fill the whole day with that task instead of dwelling on thoughts of the day after when he would have to pick her up for tea with his mother. He would take things one step at a time.

He would be able to get through this new development without too much trouble. Right?

A/N: Sorry it took so long to upload. As I type I'm neglecting reading that has to be done by tomorrow for class. The chapter is a little shorter than the others, too, as a consequence to that. I've been deliberating two ways this story can go and haven't decided on which one. We'll see when I start to write and where the characters take me. Anyway, tell me what you think, what you liked and didn't like, but don't feel pressured to review. I don't like to be pressured when I read stories but I do review when I like one. It also helps for motivation. Enjoy the chapter! I'll edit more later so excuse any mistakes for now, if you will. Also, I don't really know how flashbacks work so let's just assume this is how it happens, ok?