Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: Huge thank you to Hufflepuffmommy who helped me sort through this. Also to my husband for fueling me with chocolate and gummy candy. I put a funny in here, see if you can find it!

Chapter 11

HERMIONE
-Present-

"I'm sorry, I'm just not very hungry." Hermione said as the two walked down the street arm in arm and Harry nodded.

"I know."

"Then where are we going?" She asked hesitantly. The two had left the ministry and went in to Muggle London, stopping only to transfigure their robes into inconspicuous muggle attire before they headed out.

"You'll see." He said vaguely as he continued to pull her down the street and she continued to be pulled along.

Finally, they came to a stop and she smiled as she saw the entrance to the park. "Ginny was bringing the kids today, thought you might need some cheering up." Harry explained.

"Of course I do!" Hermione laughed and the two walked in to the park together as they spotted the red head witch sitting on the bench by herself.

"Gin!" Harry called as they approached and Ginny smiled as she waved them over.

"Happy first day back at work Hermione!" Ginny laughed and Hermione couldn't help but smile back, her miserable first day fleeing to the back of her mind as she sat down beside her pregnant friend.

"Thanks. How are you holding up?" she asked.

"Miserable. I'm so ready to be done but it doesn't seem like this one has any intention of leaving any time soon, you know." Ginny reddened as she looked at Hermione, an apology in her eyes as soon as the words had left her mouth and Hermione turned to look at the children playing in the sand.

Her earlier anger peaked once more as she realized how much she was missing out on, two whole lives she had carried under her heart and she had no recollection of it at all.

Ginny reached for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze as she continued to watch the children play. It was only then that she realized something was off.

"Where are Malfoy and the kids?" She asked suddenly.

"Oh, did Harry not tell you? Leo is sick and Draco wanted to keep him- Hermione where are you going?"

Hermione hadn't the foggiest what she was doing but at the mention of Leo being sick she hadn't thought twice as she jumped to her feet.

"I- I need…" she stammered and Harry nodded.

"Go on then." He said softly. "Just try not to splinch yourself."

She took off then, waving at her friends over her shoulder as she fled the park and turned down an empty alley before she quickly disapparated with one place in mind.

DRACO
-Past-

"Slow down mate." Blaise said with a laugh as Draco tipped back his fourth- fifth, maybe- glass of firewhisky. "You're going to drink me out of house and home."

"Sod off." Draco muttered as he reached for the bottle that Blaise had surreptitiously swiped from him.

"Seriously, what is this about Draco?" Blaise asked again, moving to set the bottle down on the counter behind him as he turned to look at his friend. "Is everything okay?"

Draco stewed, he knew Blaise didn't approve of his relationship- or lack thereof- with Hermione Granger and he really didn't feel like explaining it all to his friend only to have to hear about it. On the other hand, however, he felt like if he didn't say something he was liable to explode.

He was underestimating his friend however who sighed as he picked up the bottle he had set down and handed it back to him. "It's Granger isn't it?"

Draco pursed his lips as he accepted the bottle and poured himself another generous glass and taking it in one fell swoop. It was answer enough for Blaise who looked at him with both frustration and pity. It was going to be a long night.

"See, that's where you're wrong." Blaise said, too loudly, and Malfoy snorted in to his glass as he watched his friend schmooze. He had a witch under each arm and they were hanging on to his every word.

The witch beside Malfoy shifted, her hand resting on his thigh and her fingernails dug in to his robe a little as she started to move upwards.

He swore as he reached down to pull her hand from his body and ignored the indignant look on her face as he did so before he stood up and took off towards the door.

"Drake!" Blaise yelled and he turned to see his friend crossing the room towards him unsteadily. "Where are you off to mate?"

Draco sneered. "I need to go."

"No." Blaise said tersely, "What you need to do is go over there and use Olive Rumpett to get your mind off of that mud-"

"Don't." Draco said fiercely and before he could even register it, his wand was out and pointing at his friend. "Don't Blaise."

Blaise narrowed his eyes at his friend but nodded as he took a step back. "Fine."

Before Malfoy could react, Blaise had turned and returned to the table filled with the women he would probably end up in bed with and Draco sighed as he left the pub.

It wasn't that he hadn't been eager to forget, as Blaise had suggested when the firewhisky had ran out at his flat, it had been- more to the point- that when that witch had dug her claws in that all he could think of was Hermione Granger and what she would think.

He felt ill.

Considering his options, Draco chose to continue walking around Diagon Alley. The shops were closed due to the late- early- hour and the streets were near empty but it was better than returning home where his mind would wander to dangerous places.

He meandered through the tight places, taking notice of things he had never really taken the time to see before. Like the fact that there was a chip on the nose of the head on the front of the Weasley's joke shop and that the jellied eel shop had a red door with a purple knob.

He was so busy taking in his surroundings, trying to keep his mind busy, that he didn't notice the shadow that followed him until he turned, ready to head further in to the alley and white hot pain seared through him before he hit his knees and the world slowly faded to black.

HERMIONE
-Present-

She was running up the front steps of Malfoy manor and she didn't really care. She knocked frantically as soon as she reached the top and was surprised when the door opened midway through her fifth knock.

"Hermione?" Draco asked quietly, looking around her. "Are you-"

"Leo is ill?" she breathed.

Draco's eyes narrowed slightly but he opened the door a bit wider, "he has a cold,"

"I want to see him," she said quickly.

Draco studied her for a moment but finally stepped aside, allowing her to enter the house. "He's sleeping at the moment. Mother took Lyra to aunt Andromeda's for the day so as not to disturb him…"

"Have you given him pepper-up potion? He likes it in the blue cup best but-" she trailed off, her eyes wide and her jaw slack as she realized what she had done.

"Did you-" Draco took a small step toward her, his hand outstretched.

"No," she shook her head, "Only that. I don't know where it came from…"

"Mummy?"

The pair turned to find Leo standing at the top of the steps, still clad in his rumpled pyjamas and a dingy blanket hanging between his fingers.

"Yes Leo, mummy is here," she answered, slipping off her jacket as she made her way up the stairs and picked up the little boy as he held his hands out to her.

She was vaguely aware of Draco following behind her as she made her way into Leo's room and laid him gently in his bed.

"Lay with me mummy?" he asked once she had settled him between his green and gold covers.

"Of course," she smiled and she settled down beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he nestled against her and she gently placed a kiss on the top of his head.

"I missed you mummy," he said softly and her heart broke for the little boy she couldn't remember, "don't leave us again?"

Hermione blinked heavily, her eyes drifting to the door as she saw Draco watching the exchange and finally she nodded, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Do you think it wise?" Draco asked from across the table.

Hermione shrugged, "I don't know, but I know that I don't want to be away from them any longer. I understand if you don't want me here-"

He looked up sharply then, "I always want you here,"

She felt her shoulders relax slightly but she powered on, "I don't know what I'm doing Malfoy, I'm scared and I feel more alone than I ever have before but… I don't want to spend any more time away from my children- our children."

She looked away then, studying her hands as they sat in her lap, "I'll set up the guest room for you."

Nodding in thanks, she stood up with him, a thought occurring to her as she did, "Draco-where are your house elves?"

Draco swallowed loudly but he finally smiled wryly, "I'm afraid that is a story for another day."

DRACO
-Past-

He came back to consciousness slowly, like the giant squid breaking the surface of the black lake, the unconsciousness slowly dripping away as his eyes adjusted.

"Hey mate," the voice said lowly to his right and he blinked as he met Blaise's worried gaze, "How are you feeling?"

Draco groaned, "Like I took on a mountain troll," he croaked and grimaced as his entire being protested the action.

"Draco?" he startled then, turning to see Hermione beside him, her eyes heavy with sleep and she jumped up, "I'll fetch a healer."

Before he could so much as nod, she was gone, her bushy hair whipping behind her.

"She's frightening that one." Blaise said seriously, his lips pulled down into a frown.

Draco gulped, flinching as his dry throat revolted and Blaise handed him a cup of water.

"What happened?" he finally managed to ask between drinks, watching his longtime friend carefully.

"You left the pub in a huff, I was going to let you go but I didn't want you to do something stupid, like show up on Granger's doorstep." The man rolled his eyes, "I followed you out eventually and when I finally found you-"

"Crucio," Draco mumbled, "I heard it, felt it, before-"

Blaise nodded, "Whoever it was left you in a right state."

Draco looked at the man before him, noting the look of regret on his friend's face. Neither of them were strangers to the cruciatus curse. Not only had it been one of Voldemort-and his aunt Bella's- favorite punishments but Blaise had seen enough of it in recent years during his work in the auror's office. The way his body felt now, however, was different.

"Bloody Granger showed up not too long after they'd gotten you back here. Heard about it from the Weasel I'm sure, she's a right pain in the-"

"Mr. Malfoy," the healer appeared in the doorway, his face a look of stern consternation as he approached the bedside, Granger hot on his heels. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I took on a mountain troll," Draco repeated the sentiment from earlier as the healer pulled out his wand and got down to business and Draco looked anywhere but at Hermione, their last words to each other playing in his mind.

The healer finished up, promising some pain potion within the hour, before he finally took his leave and Blaise followed shortly after, ignoring the daggers Draco was glaring at him as he whistled a happy little tune to himself as he disappeared.

"Draco-" Hermione started once they had left.

"Don't Granger-" he started.

"No," the witch said, her voice firm and full of conviction. "Draco, you were right. What you said before…you were right."

Draco couldn't help but stare then, his jaw hanging open tactlessly and his eyes, no doubt, bugging out of his head.

"I told you that you should try, to let go of the past but I couldn't even do it myself. I let someone else dictate what I wanted for myself and I shouldn't have…" she trailed off, her cheeks pink and for a second, Draco wanted to reach out and touch her hand. He tamped it down though and clenched his jaw, turning his eyes upon the charmed window overlooking his bed.

He heard her sigh, could see her shoulders shake slightly out of the corner of his eye and yet still, he looked on.

"Draco, I'm sorry."

The silence carried on, the stillness of the air surrounding her words seemed to hang around them like the thick smoke of a billowing potion and Draco knew that he held the cards in his hand. All he had to do was chuck them out the window. To say goodbye to Hermione Granger once and for all.

Instead, he turned, eyeing the folder that sat on the table beside her chair and nodded his head, "Well don't just sit there, find out who did this to me so we can fry the bastard."

She beamed then, pulling the ever growing stack of parchment and her insufferable muggle ink pen into her lap as she delved into what she had been working on while he had been unconscious and he realized he had made his choice long before then.

There was no going back.

One way or another Hermione Granger was going to be the death of him.

A/N: I almost left this as a cliffie. You're so very welcome that I changed it last minute. Also, this weekend my small hometown in the middle of nowhere is having a huge arts and crafts festival. My husband's family runs a haunted house every fall in an old opera house so we'll be there this weekend drumming up some business so I may or may not get around to an update! Reviews might spur me on a little bit though. (wink)