Chapter Six

Daughter

The sky was dark when Hermione woke. She gazed out through the crack in the drapes. When daylight streamed in she looked over to Draco beside her sleeping soundlessly. She memorized his supple lips, his long nose, his prominent cheek bones, his violet eyelids hiding the beautiful gray beneath. He was beautiful she thought as she swept his fairytale hair from his brows though he really liked it there.

She gave a contented sigh when she reminiscent about last night. It was gentle love making, but on the second and third and even fourth rounds it became rough. She had light bruises on her hips and shoulders. Draco didn't go without long claw marks down his back. It all had been filled with need, a desperate attempt to make up for the time they lost. Of course they took their breaks to check in on Joanne. Her fever broke around three in the morning, and they traded the wool blanket for a light sheet. She slept on peacefully.

In a strange way Hermione felt reborn, like she had been sleeping for years (eight in fact), and just opened her eyes. Apart of her that she didn't recognize, the part of her conscious that she had buried knew that this was what she needed. She needed Draco. She didn't die when she lost Harry and Ron though it was awfully close. No, she died when she left Draco and everyone. Her life metaphorically ended there because she had no one left. She'd been selfish. How much pain she must've caused to ones that were just as in as much pain as her.

That day would be a new beginning she decided.

Stretching she felt the silk sheets move over her. She was a little sore but it was the good kind. She smiled happily. All those years were wasted when she could be waking up like she was then.

She went to slip out of the bed, but was stopped when a hand gripped her arm. She leaned in kissing Draco's lips.

"Sleep in," he mumbled tiredly.

"I have to get up before your daughter. I think this would be too quick for her."

He nodded understandingly, but didn't release her. "You're right."

"I'll get dressed, and cook pancakes."

He still didn't let her go. "Hermione, you meant what you said last night, right? About marrying me?"

"Draco, the reason I wanted to stay here is because I haven't felt happier. Not in a long time."

"Then you should start thinking of Joanne was your own."

She stiffened and it didn't go unnoticed. He raised a questioning brow at her, but how could she explain? Hermione loved him, she wanted to be his wife, pick up her life where she left it, but she didn't think about the rest of the package deal. She would be a mother.

"Hermione?"

"I don't know if I'd make a good mother. She isn't mine, Draco."

He was passive. "You'd make a great mother. In two days you've become very close. You've already bonded with her. Love, she is yours as much as she is mine." He closed his eyes as if trying to repress a horrible memory. "She was a mistake. Her mother was a mistake. I don't regret keeping her though. She's the one that got me through when you... Were gone." He opened his eyes to gaze at her meaningfully. "She was supposed to be your daughter. That's the way it was meant. Can you love her?"

She chuckled. It was a ridiculous question. "She's very easy to love."

"Can you love her as your own?"

She rolled to her side taking his off of his pillow intertwining their fingers. "You know, when we were at the park she was swinging high. It scared me. I feared that she'd fall and hurt herself. When she became sick... I would have done anything to get her well. I don't understand how - in two days - I could, but I can."

"You were always nurturing, but maybe the reason you love her as your own is because you love me."

"That makes sense." She brought their hands to her lips and then hopped out of the bed gathering her - Draco's - clothes from the floor.

"You need to go shopping. Mind you, I do love you in my clothes."

Hermione buttoned the trousers and pulled the shirt over her head. "Joanne should relax today."

"There's our family Healer not to mention babysitter, he'll watch her."

"Let poor Theo have the day off. I have something planned for her."

He frowned. "No magic, remember?"

She couldn't believe that she forgot, but in her defense she hardly had time to remember since Joanne got sick. "Why is that? Why are you living like a Muggle?"

Draco glanced away. "I think we've gone through plenty of memories for a while."

"Dra -"

"I'll tell you. Soon, I will," he promised.

Hermione let it go. It was a good day, no need to ruin it.

After she had a quick shower smoothing her hair into a clip she went to Joanne's room peeking her head in. Joanne, though a bit flushed was looking loads better. She sat in the middle of her room fully dressed pulling on her socks. Hermione understood why, the hallways floor was in wood and chilled her all the way to the back of her neck.

"Miney," she exclaimed happily when she glimpsed up.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes!"
"Help me with breakfast then. How does pancakes sound?'

"Great," she said leaping to her feet.

In the kitchen Hermione lifted her on the counter. She let her pour the measure mix into a bowl and let her stir as she swung her legs. She dipped the batter into a pan and handed her three plates to put on the table.

Draco came in kissing his daughter on her head and when Joanne ran off to watch cartoons he kissed Hermione's cheek. He looped his arms over her waist.

"Draco," she said in warning.

"She's watching the television," he mumbled in her neck.

She flipped the thickening batter distracted by his gentle nibbles below her ear. "Tell her to come to the table, this is done."

He let her go calling, "Joanne, breakfast."

They all sat at the table, all eating, her and Draco laughing at every one of Joanne's jokes. Frequently Draco reminded her to eat before her food became cold.

It seemed routine, like they were a real family, like Hermione was always there. It sent a wave of hope and comfort. She did belong there.

Like he supposedly did every morning kissed Joanne goodbye, and left for work. It occurred to Hermione that she didn't know what he did for a living. He certainly wasn't an Auror anymore. He didn't carry a wand.

"Joanne, what does your dad do?"

"He builds hotels. He has a museum too," she told her proudly.

Hermione smiled and gathered the plates dumping them in the sink."He has a good job."

"Daddy loves it." She twisted in her seat. "What're we going to do today?"

"You should rest today -"

"Aw, but I feel better."

"I had an idea. When I was little and not feeling well my mum would lay a blanket on the floor and we would watch movies all day."

Joanne lit up. "Can we have popcorn?"

"The doctor said to keep it light, so how about crackers?"

She moaned in complaint. "I told Uncle Theo I felt fine."

Hermione shook her head. "Pick out some movies, I'll set things up."

Five pillows and three thick blankets were spread on the carpet in front of the television, and she dimmed the lights giving it the feel of a theater. Joanne chose a pile of cartoons some of them she decided to watch twice in a row as she snacked on crackers and ginger ale.

Nearing afternoon Joanne snuggled into Hermione's side fast asleep. Hermione watched her pushing her hair from her face. She contemplated how easy it was for a child to capture someone's heart.

Hermione woke her up for supper and after one last movie sent her to bed with a new story, her father as the main character. This one was about him tattling on her and her friends when he caught them with a pet hamster in class. It was wildly different version of the true story of the Hogwarts gamekeeper and his pet dragon Norbert.

Joanne yawned widely at the end of the tale. "Daddy was mean."

"He was a bit of a bully," Hermione allowed. "He's grown up a lot."

"How long will you stay," she asked suddenly her eyes falling closed.

"I'm not sure," Hermione answered quietly.

"Can you stay? Daddy'll build a room for you. I'll share mine if not."

"Don't worry about it now," but saying so was useless. Joanne was asleep.

Hermione, in a rush of motherly affection kissed her hair pulling the covers over her shoulders. It felt right, like fitting together a puzzle.

She was folding the blankets in the lounge when Draco came in. He shoved his keys in his pocket rushing forward to kiss her. The blankets dropped at their feet. She was breathless when he pulled back.

"What story did you tell her this time?"

"First year when you tattled on us. Norbert was changed to hamster."

He laughed, "clever, Granger."

She shook her head her surname. Not once when they were attending Hogwarts did he call her by her given name. She refused to be deterred. "Why am I lying to her?"

He held her hips against his running the tips of his fingers under her blouse up her sides. It send icy chills through her. She shivered. He chortled.

"I need to know, Draco."

He stopped but not without an exasperated expression. "I suppose it's only fair." He tugged her to the sofa. It was almost a repeat of last night, except it was the blankets they left no potatoes, and it was him who owed an explanation.

"When Potter and Weasley..." He couldn't finish and started over. "I quit my job. I've never been able to rid of the image of them... Then you left, and I made a mistake. Joanne's mother - biological mother - I didn't mean for anything to happen... She's Muggle, and Joanne was born in a Muggle hospital. My parents still believed blood linage was important and wanted me to give her up. I couldn't, not when she first looked at me with my eyes. She's too beautiful for words, and she's mine," he said, pride dripping from his words. "It felt appropriate to live a Muggle life. Remaining in the Wizard world was too painful anyhow."

Hermione reached for his hand. "Don't you think your depraving her of what you had?"

His hand twitched as though ready to pull back, but his defensiveness was in his tone. "She's happy. She doesn't know better."

"What if she starts showing signs of magic?"

"I'll have to tell her, won't I?" It was rhetorical; Hermione didn't respond, but his thumb drew circles on her knuckles.

She curled her feet under her curling up to his chest and he enveloped her. "You ran too." She steeled herself for an indigent reaction, but there wasn't one.

"Yes," he confessed shamefully. "I'm worse than you. Nothing has changed there."

"How're you worse than me?"

"You didn't have a child out of wedlock, did you, Hermione?"

"No." She didn't add the embarrassing facet that she hadn't been with a man at all since him. "But you moved on."

"Not really. I ran, I hid, I did everything but face my problems. Everyday I hoped you'd come find me. I thought it was far fetched, but still I hoped that you could be apart of my new family." He squeezed. "I didn't think that I would nearly running you over with my car would bring you here, but I'll take any reason."

She chortled listening to his heart thrumming in her ear and the vibrations his deep voice made. "If I knew where it would lead I would have thrown myself in front of it to begin with. At least something good came out of waiting."
"What's that?"

She thought it would be obvious. "Your daughter."

"Our daughter."

"Our daughter," she agreed, the words feeling odd in her mouth. She liked it. It felt... Right.

If Hermione had any doubts earlier she didn't have them then. This was the family she was meant to have. Not to replace the ones she lost, but to have from the beginning.

Hermione leaned against her boyfriend's chest their fingers intertwined on her stomach. It was a lazy Sunday on his couch, the rain pattering against the windows. It was the perfect day to relax, something Hermione was learning to do with Draco. For practice they both lied to their friends. As far as they were concerned they were with their families. It was a "dangerous" thing to do according to her, considering that any one of them could call their parents. She could barely care though, she was completely at ease. That is until Draco brought up her parents. Again.

"Why not tell them?"

"You know, I haven't lied to them. They know what you were like in school. They didn't appreciate the term Mudblood."

"They're going to know sooner or later."

"Later?"

"Hermione, please."

She craned her neck to consider him. She didn't like it when he said 'please' no matter how polite it was, he knew that it was a weak spot with her, but she wasn't going to cave. "And what about your parents, Draco? Will you ever tell them?"

"Sure..."

"You're a terrible liar."

He groaned playfully. "How can you tell?"

"Your face goes blank. There's no emotion."

"Hmph."

"When you tell your parents, I'll tell mine."

"So never?"

She laughed. "Never."

He kissed her neck. "What will we do when they have grandchildren? It's not like they'll have any others, we're both only children."

Despite herself she grinned at the picture he painted. Children with wild blond hair, and smart mouths. "We'll send them pictures," she teased.