January 2018

Draco sat at a corner booth with two people he had once in his life never thought he would be having a drink with: Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. It was the sixth time since 2013 they had ever done this and always on the same date and always with the same thoughts on their minds: another year. Every year on January 23rd the three of them got together to have a drink and somberly yet happily celebrate another year in which Hermione was still the woman that they had all loved. The first night they had done this it wasn't a plan. Elena Alexandria Malfoy had been born that night back in 2013 and although happy, Draco had left his girlfriend asleep in St. Mungo's so he could drink himself silly. When he had gotten there he realized that he wasn't the only one who had wanted to get drunk. Harry and Ron had been there too. Draco was about to turn and head home, but Harry prompted him to stay by asking the barkeep for a full bottle of firewhiskey and a third glass.

And now here they were years later; demolishing a bottle of well-aged firewhiskey and making sure everything was still properly secure.

"You're still standing firm about that, right?" Ron asked with a brow raised. Draco nodded as he tossed back a shot. To his surprise the liquid burned less ferociously than the previous three he had taken. Scoffing in his head, he decided that was probably why. His tongue and throat had to have been scorched beyond measure by now and numbed to every taste.

"You should see the way she looks at me though every time I shy away from the idea." Draco frowned. Harry shared his sympathy.

"I can imagine. Hermione was never one to be eager to marry until you. Unfortunately we can't risk it."

"Mhmm," Ron agreed. He then chuckled as he slugged down his fifth shot for the night. "Funny how you can have a moody wife without actually having a wife."

Draco ignored him and went to pour himself another drink when he realized that the bottle was empty. Luckily for him the bartender had anticipated his needs and another appeared next to him as he set the old bottle down.

"What about Welford?" Harry asked. Draco pursed his lips as he knew neither he nor Ron would like the answer.

"He's moving back into the Manor. Just until the start of the summer." Draco added quickly, but that didn't assuage his acquaintances (friends'?) worries very much.

"He's moving in?" Ron questioned with wide eyes. "What the hell for?"

"It's for Alex." He explained. Although the girl had a different first name, the young Malfoy absolutely despised it. When she was three and a half she had held her breath until her face turned blue because of it. Since then, her middle name had quickly become her first. "She's five now and has to start wand training."

"Wand training?"

Draco nodded. "It's Malfoy family tradition. Every Malfoy child begins at five; no real spells though. The wand used is merely for demonstrative purposes. Alex will learn proper pronunciation and wand movements. Welford will train her in that just as he trained me."

"Why can't you train her?" Harry suggested. "You've already learned it and she's your kid."

"I thought about it, but as Welford so elegantly pointed out in a letter he sent just before Alex's birthday, my foundation in magic is sloppy at best." Draco scowled. "He offered his services and I took them. After Alex is finished with that I'll take the training from there. More complicated wand movements, magical theory, Latin roots and other dead languages right up until she hits the Hogwarts express."

"Merlin…" Ron said breathlessly. "No wonder Alex nearly killed your arse. You trained her too damn good."

Draco smiled and reflected on said night when his daughter tried to murder him. The girl had had skill. If there was one thing he was going to preserve in the future, it was Alex's mastery of magic.

By the time Draco got home he was at the borderline just past tipsy. Although he had had quite a bit to drink, he was no lightweight. Not to mention he had killed enough time to sober up some so that he didn't end up getting splinched on his way home.

Once inside Malfoy Manor Draco made his way to the West Wing. Along the way he stopped at the bedroom that was three doors down from the suite that he shared with Hermione. Inside that bedroom he found both of his girls laying on the bed that fit Hermione's body size perfectly, but was obviously much too large for the five-year-old girl. Alex was under the covers sleeping and hugging her favorite stuffed animal. Hermione wasn't under the covers but she too was asleep, a child's book in her hands.

This was a scene that Draco had grown accustomed to seeing. Hermione would read Alex a bedtime story and when the girl had drifted to sleep, her mother wouldn't leave. She'd stay there atop the sheets and watch her daughter sleep until she had unintentionally fallen asleep as well. Sometimes Draco would wake her. Sometimes Draco would levitate her out of the room and carefully set her down on their own bed. And sometimes, like tonight, Draco would quietly edge out of the room, close the door, and leave the loves of his life alone in peace.

Draco sighed happily as he reached his bedroom. He was going to sleep well tonight, he knew, because his body grew tired as he eyed his bed. Draco slipped off his coat and lazily slipped it onto an ottoman in the corner of the room. He pulled his sweater over his head and contemplated whether he should take off the white t-shirt he had on as well. With a shrug of his shoulders he kept it on and went on to exchange his pants for sleepwear bottoms when the air around him felt off. He paused as he knew the feeling. He remembered the feeling. Draco's heartrate accelerated to dangerous levels as the spot in front of him began to morph. He was no longer in his bedroom alone.

Alex was all grown up. She definitely wasn't sixteen as the last time she had paid him a futuristic visit, but she wasn't very adult-like either. At most she had to be nineteen, twenty. Regardless of age however, Draco could see in her eyes the vendetta she held in her heart, and he eyed her hand itching towards a concealed wand.

"Elena Alexandria Malfoy, you put that wand on me and so help me Merlin I'll ground you for the rest of your life. I don't care how old you are or when you're from."

That stopped Alex dead. She stared at her father in surprise and relaxed her hand at her side and huffed. "Serves me right for stumbling upon the man who trained me, right?" Despite his warning Alex whipped out her wand anyway. Draco pulled out his but found it leaving his fingers just as quickly as he did. It was in Alex's left hand in an instant as well as, quite impressively, the two other spare wands in the room.

"Killing me won't solve anything, Alex."

"I know." She said softly. The wands she dropped on the ground behind her and she held her father's gaze. "That's why I'm not here to kill you. I'm here for my mother."

Draco's eyes widened as he instinctively eyed behind him, knowing that Hermione was still in young Alex's bedroom. "Why?"

"You already said it. Killing you won't solve my problems. Anyone's problems. Whether it's your death, keeping Welford away, kicking Lenny out of your life, or never marrying mum, it doesn't matter. The future still ends up the same."

"How do you know about Lenny? How do you about any of things that I tried to do-"

"I overheard you talking when I'm from." Alex explained. "Mum's dead. You and Uncle Ron were having a drunk pity party."

"What about Pott –Harry?"

"Dead. He died while fighting mum and took her out with him."

Draco's heart sank. He didn't know what was worse. Finding out that Hermione was dead again or the fact that Harry had killed her. His legs felt weak and he sluggishly moved to sit down at the edge of his bed. He swallowed deeply. "I'm surprised… Out of all the times this has happened, you've always wanted to kill the person who murdered your mother."

"And look where it's gotten us." Alex said exasperatedly. "Look at where it's going to get us. Endless trips to the past to change a future that's written in stone. I decided to do something different this time. Come back and get rid of the problem here and now."

Draco's eyes flashed dangerously at his daughter as he rose to his feet. "Hermione isn't a problem. She's your mother! And you'd do best to remember that."

"Remember that?" Alex seethed angrily. "All I remember past the age of seven years old is a woman who grew further and further away from her family. A woman who loved the Dark Arts more than her own child! A woman who did this to me because I wouldn't follow in her footsteps." Alex pulled up her sleeve to reveal a large burn from her upper arm and down to her wrist. She rolled back down her sleeve in a huff and clenched her teeth. "I won't remember a damned thing. And just who the hell do you think you are to tell me to!"

"I'm your father, that's who the hell I am! And you're neverto raise your voice to me like that again!" Draco shouted, now standing in front of Alex and clearly towering over her. "You've got mummy issues, I get it. But no daughter of mine is going to piss and moan about it. You're a Malfoy. Grow up. You want things to go your way? Make it so. And just for the record, killing somebody to make your problems go away is the cowardly way out, and I'm ashamed of you."

However strong Alex had been just moments ago, Draco could see the little girl in her shining through. With a snap of his fingers all three wands she had discarded onto the ground were in his hand. He tossed his spares onto the bed and tucked his wand away in his back pocket. Alex stared at him in surprise and let her mouth curl into a smirk.

"You never once showed me how to do that."

"I'm sure I didn't." Draco told her, a smile of his own coming to his lips. "Then you could've gotten whatever you wanted sans wand. Laziness isn't a desirable trait, Alex, and Accio is bad enough." He sighed then and lifted the time-turner his daughter was wearing in such a way that the chain wrapped around his neck as well. Alex stared at him in confusion.

"What are you doing?"

"We're taking a little time trip." Draco said as he prepared the time-turner. "Where do you live in the future?"

"Well, here, but I still don't-"

"And how old are you?"

"Twenty, but dad I-"

"No buts," Draco interrupted. He counted to himself as he twirled the rings around the time-turner forward. The golden object fell from his hands after he finished and he felt Alex's arms wrap around him as the world dissolved. When everything came back into view they stood in an extremely dusty and structurally unstable version of Draco's West Wing bedroom. Both he and Alex coughed as he slipped the time-turner from off of them and gave it to her.

"How far into the future did you go?" Alex asked as she coughed more, waving dust in the air away from her. "This certainly isn't my time. Despite the chaos you kept Malfoy Manor spic and span."

"Well that's good to know." Draco said as he slowly moved towards the door. "You're right. This isn't your time. It's ten years past it."

"Ten years?" Alex repeated. "Why so far?"

"I wanted to give everything time to calm down. And to give you time as well."

"Time for what exactly?"

"Time to figure out what happened to my mother." An older version of Alex said. She was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, hands cupped, and her lips firmly clasped together. "Of course, you both are right on time. Follow me."

Author's note: Well, as the title said, Alex came back with a new vendetta! But leave it to Draco to set his daughter straight and keep her in line. I particularly liked the bit about him grounding her :). And we see Alex's future self! More on that in the next chapter.

Hope that you liked it as the others! Thank for all the support :)

-WP