Happy Friday everyone! Has anyone else been roasting due to the heat? I bought this shirt from Forever 21 that supposed to keep you cool and not sweaty. Lies, I tell you. All lies.

Chapter 12

Spotting Adrian in Pansy's restaurant, Draco entered the small establishment. With his back to him, Draco had no problem slapping the back of his head before sitting down. "You told her I asked you to look into her?" Draco demanded.

Adrian rubbed the back of his head. "Ow. What? No," he replied. "Why did you hit me?"

"Did you tell Pansy?" Draco inquired.

Chagrined, the older man nodded. "I might have let that slip, yeah," he said. "I'm sorry. You know Pansy always had a way of getting the truth out of me. Was Hermione mad?"

Draco shook his head. "No, at least she said she wasn't," he remarked. He flagged Pansy and asked for a glass of water. "Honestly, I think she was too upset about other things to care. I have a feeling it's going to come back to haunt me eventually though."

"Probably," Adrian agreed. "So, did the two of you talk?"

"I know her secret, if that's what you mean."

Adrian grinned and rested his arms on the table. "Yeah? What is it?"

Shaking his head, Draco remembered that he was sworn to secrecy. "Sorry, not my secret to tell," he said as Pansy returned with his water.

"What secret?" she asked, glaring at Draco.

"It's nothing," Draco said, sure by the look in her eye that Pansy would soon hit him. "It's one that you and I know, but Adrian doesn't. Please don't hurt me."

Grabbing his shirtsleeve, Pansy pulled him hard enough for him to get the message to follow her. "How did you find out?" she demanded.

Draco glanced down at her hand. "Hermione told me," he replied calmly.

"What did you do?" Pansy asked after dragging him to the alley. "Veritaserum? Some kind of truth spell? Waterboarding?"

He slapped her hand away. "What? No. Are you crazy?" he asked. "Why would I torture her into telling me? She told me because she wanted to tell me."

Sighing, Pansy stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. "So?" she asked. "Is it everything you hoped it would be?"

Draco shook his head. "I wasn't hoping for some big secret I could use to blackmail her, if that's what you're thinking," he replied. "At first I was just curious. Now, I...I feel so bad for her. She tries to be so stoic all the time. It was hard watching her cry."

"It was hard watching her go through it the first time around," Pansy added. "We found her parents before she went into labor. After the baby died, we stayed with them. Hermione shut herself up in their guest bedroom for months. She would just cry and refuse to talk to us and not come out of that room. I would sneak into her room at night after she'd cried herself to sleep and leave her food for the next day. It scared me, Draco. Being with you and Lilah now, seeing old patterns start to emerge, I'm worried that she's slipping back into that depression."

"What can I do?" he asked, genuinely concerned for Hermione's well-being. "How can I help?"

Pansy leaned against the wall and sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Honestly, I'm not sure that there's anything we can do. Sometimes she just needs to go through this on her own."

Though he wasn't entirely sure that was the right way to handle the situation, Draco deferred to Pansy's experience. "Am I doing the right thing? Keeping her on as Lilah's nanny?" he asked.

Pansy smiled. "Yeah, I think you are," she replied. "She loves your little girl. Right now, I think being with Lilah is what she needs."

Draco nodded and turned to leave. "Any chance you know about her relationship with Potter?" he asked.

"Oh, I know everything," Pansy replied with a devious smile. "Too bad I intend to tell you nothing. Maybe you should hire someone to look into it."

He grinned as she turned to re-enter the restaurant. "You're an evil, evil woman, Pansy Parkinson," he called to her. She smiled and waved goodbye, and when she was out of sight, Draco Apparated home.

"Oh, hi," Hermione greeted him when he arrived. She seemed more like her old self - a smile on her face, eyes alight as she played with Lilah, happy.

Taking a seat beside her on the floor, Draco graciously accepted a block that his daughter handed to him. "How's everything going?" he asked, looking pointedly at Hermione.

Hermione eyed him. "Same as this morning," she reported. "Really, Draco, you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine. I'm not going to fall apart or run off with your child. Just...pretend I never told you."

"I'm a father. It's my job to worry," Draco replied.

"Yes, but you're not my father," Hermione pointed out.

He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I'm still going to worry about you," he stated.

"Okay, fine. Just leave fatherhood out of it," she muttered before returning her attention to Lilah.

"Um, I talked to Pansy today," he confessed. "She's worried about you too."

Turning her head, she glared at him. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she wondered. "Because it really doesn't. I don't need anyone to worry about me. I'm not going to break down over this. I told you about the baby because I wanted to. You've been a good friend to me, and I didn't want to keep this a secret from you. Please don't make me regret it."

"Sure, but you'll keep it from Potter."

Draco knew it was the wrong thing to say the second he uttered the words. Hermione glared murderously at him as she got to her feet and left the room. He winced when he heard what he thought was the bathroom door slam. Placing Lilah in her playpen, he walked down the hall and stopped outside the closed door. "Hermione? I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean it."

She opened the bathroom door. "You wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it," she replied angrily.

Draco nodded. "I know," he murmured. "But I am sorry that I said it. I'm more sorry that I hurt you though."

"I know you are," she said with a sigh. "It's just...I can't tell Harry. You have no idea how many times I've wanted to. Telling him means losing him and Ron and the Weasleys though."

"What makes you think you'd lose them?" Draco wondered. "Just because you kept this a secret from them?"

Hermione shook her head. "Being with Harry was a secret," she explained. It had started while they were on the run. Ron had abandoned them, and Harry became her only comfort. He was all she had, and the fear that every day might be her last led to the loss of her virginity. "After the war, I don't know. I knew Ron liked me, and I had feelings for him as well. Harry and I just always seemed to gravitate toward one another. When I found out I was pregnant, I told him it was over and I left. Ron and I started dating a few months after I returned from Australia. No one ever knew about us. Ron and Ginny would never forgive us for being together, and Harry would never forgive me for not telling him about the baby. I can't lose them, Draco."

Taking a step closer, he rested his hand on her cheek. "I don't think you'd lose them," he replied. "And I know it's probably of little consolation, but even if you did, you'd still have me."

Hermione smiled as she wrapped her fingers around his wrist. "Trust me, it means more than you think."