Chapter 3
Hermione smiled. "Owen and Eleina…I like that."
"Then that's settled."
They both walked out the room to let the kids sleep in peace. They stood outside the room after Hermione closed the door behind them. Neither one said anything, just stood where they were staring at the ground.
"So..I think I'm going to work on my Transfiguration essay." Hermione said before the moment got anymore awkward.
"Ok, I still need to finish my DADA assignment."
Hermione just nodded and headed downstairs, Draco following behind her slowly. They were about to sit down on the couch when they heard the portrait door swing open and in walked Dumbledore.
"Sorry for the interruption, but I need to speak with you, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco looked at Hermione, who just shrugged. He followed Dumbledore outside and they stood in the empty corridor.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
"Mr. Malfoy, this is really difficult for me to say, but you're mother's been murdered." Draco froze, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He just stared at Dumbledore, speechless. "We think you're father had something to do with it since no one's been able to find him. It is a possibility that he fled to avoid being captured. I'm really sorry."
"Is that all?"
"Yes"
"Then, I should go back inside."
Dumbledore sighed. "Very well, then. But I will be in my office if you need to talk."
Draco walked back inside. He continued walking, ignoring Hermione's questioning look. He walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. Without changing out of his school robes he got into his bed and just laid there.
Hermione saw Draco come inside and was about to ask him what Dumbledore wanted, but when she saw his face she knew she shouldn't say anything. Although his face was emotionless, Hermione knew that something was wrong. She could tell by the way he was so quiet and was not even looking at her. She set her books down and walked up to the bedroom a couple of minutes after Draco. She silently opened the door and stepped inside. She saw him lying on his bed under the covers. He wasn't facing her, but she knew that he was not asleep.
"Draco? Are you alright?"
"Go away, Granger."
"I thought I told you to call me Hermione."
"I said, go away!"
Hermione jumped, she didn't expect him to yell at her like that. Something was definitely wrong with him. She walked towards his bed and put her hand on his shoulder, but Draco violently pushed it away which made Hermione back up.
"What point of 'go away' don't you understand, you stupid mudblood?"
"Well sorry for being concerned about you!"
"I don't need you to be concerned about me. Now go away."
"Fine!"
Hermione was about to walk out the door when she remembered that his room was her room too. She sighed and walked over to her clothes drawer to grab her stuff. She went into the bathroom to change into her pajamas and brushed her teeth. She went back inside, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked, obviously forgetting that they shared a room.
"Going to sleep. This is my room too, you know"
"I'm not sleeping in the same room as you"
"Then leave!"
Hermione was shocked when she heard Draco get up and walk out the room. She didn't expect him to give in so easily. Whatever, Why should I care if he sleeps on the couch? Hermione thought to herself as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Draco walked out the room and into the bathroom. He walked towards the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. My mother is dead, he thought to himself and it finally sunk in. He became angry and punched the wall. He didn't care that his knuckles were bleeding and he just walked out the bathroom towards the couch. He took off his robes and slept only in his boxers. Even though it was cold, Draco didn't want to light the fireplace. He wished his whole body would go numb, so he wouldn't have to feel anything. He lay down on the couch and although it took him awhile, he fell asleep.
The next morning Hermione woke up to the sound of crying. She raced out of her room and into the children's room. She picked up Eleina and rocked the baby in her arms to stop her from crying. She then sat the baby on the couch and walked over to the other crib. She looked down and saw that he was awake, but wasn't crying. She smiled down at Owen and picked him up.
"I wish your sister could be more like you. I don't know how much more of this crying I can take."
She walked over and picked Eleina up in her other arm and walked down stairs to the living room. She walked over towards the couch, but quickly turned away when she saw Draco, who was nearly naked, asleep. She put each baby on their high-chairs and went upstairs to get a blanket for Draco. When she came back down, she noticed that he was awake. She walked down the stairs and placed the blanket on the other couch that was unoccupied.
"You should probably put some clothes on." Hermione said as she went to go look for baby food in the cupboard. She didn't hear an answer from him, just the bathroom door closing. She walked over to her kids with two bottles of baby food.
"You're father is a little cranky," She said to both of them, "but don't worry, mommy's not afraid of him." She smiled at her kids as she opened the bottle and tried to feed them, but they wouldn't eat.
"Come on, Owen. I know baby food is really gross, but you have to eat it. I don't want you to starve." She tried to force it in his mouth but the baby would not open it. "So stubborn, just like your father."
Hermione then tried to feed Eleina, "Hi, baby girl! Want some yummy food?" She was so happy when Eleina opened her mouth to eat, but the food came out just as fast as it went it. Hermione sighed, "What am I going to do?"
"Let me try."
Hermione turned around to see Draco already dressed in his robes. "You should probably go get ready for class."
"Good luck." Hermione told him as she handed Draco the baby food and left to go get dressed. Hermione went upstairs to go change and wash up. When she came back down, she was shocked to see that both food bottles were empty and Draco was wiping Eleina's mouth with a towel.
"How did you get them to eat?"
"They just like me better."
"Are you still angry from last night? What happened, anyways?" Hermione gave him a questioning look, but Draco just ignored her questions.
"I'm hungry, Are we going to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast yet?" Draco asked her as he walked over to sit on the couch. Hermione just sighed, if he wasn't going to tell her then she won't bother asking. It was better to have him like this than yelling at her anyway.
"Well, first I have to get these little ones dressed. Will you help me? I mean, the faster we get it done the faster we can go."
Hermione smiled when she saw Draco get up and walk over towards her and the kids. She picked up Owen and Draco picked up Eleina. They went into their children's room and got them both changed. Then, they packed up all their books and headed out the door.
They walked down the corridor heading for the Great Hall when they saw Ron and Millicent standing in the middle of the walkway arguing about something. They walked closer and saw that Millicent had a baby that was about two in her arms, but there were two more kids about the age of five standing in between her and Ron.
"Hello Ron!...Millicent…" Hermione said to them as her and Draco reached the couple.
"Hello Hermione! Are those your kids?" Ron greeted them.
"No Weasley, they're not. We just found them lying somewhere and thought 'Hey! Let's take them, I've always wanted one!'" Draco snorted. Hermione just smacked his arm.
"Ron, this is Owen and Eleina. And who are these cuties?" Hermione asked as she crouched down next to the kids.
"This is Tyler and Taylor, twins. The one in Millicent's arms is Robyn."
"Oh how cute!" Hermione smiled.
"And there's also Alex, but we don't know where he went. Weasley over here was supposed to be watching him." Millicent added, giving Ron a stern look.
"Hahahaha, you guys have four kids?! Well, I wouldn't have expected anything less coming from a Weasley family, but still, I feel bad for you both. And I thought I had it rough." Draco laughed, receiving glares from the other three.
"Ron, how could you lose your own child?" Hermione asked ignoring Draco's laughs while looking around to see if she could spot a runaway boy.
"I don't know! I turned around for a second and when I turned back around, he was gone!"
"Wait! Does anybody else hear that?" Millicent asked, and everyone quieted down to hear what it was.
"Over there!" Hermione pointed down the corridor and they walked towards a stone statue. Behind the statue they saw a little boy about 3 sitting in a crouched position crying.
"Alex! What's wrong? Why did you run away?" Ron said as he bent down and picked up the child.
"I…I saw a…a…a spider!" Alex said as he dug his face into Ron's robes.
"Ha! Afraid of a spider, just like his father." Draco said, with a smirk on his face, which caused Hermione to hit him again, but this time a lot harder. "Hey! Would you stop doing that?" Draco rubbed his arm. "There's probably a bruise now."
"Well that's what you get!" Hermione said and turned away to face Ron and Alex.
"Hey there, Alex. It's okay to be scared of spiders."
"Who..who are you?" Alex asked, still a little frightened.
"My name is Hermione and this over here is Draco. Don't mind him though, he's a jerk sometimes."
"What's a jerk?"
"A really rude and mean person." Hermione said looking at Draco.
"What?" Draco asked innocently.
Hermione just shook her head at him. "Come on, let's get down to the Great Hall. We've wasted enough time already."
Both families walked towards the Great Hall and once inside, they saw an extra table off to the side where all the other families were sitting and assumed that that was where they were suppose to sit too. They walked to the table and sat down in the middle. Hermione sat next to Harry while Draco sat on the opposite side next to Pansy.
"Hello Hermione. A little late?"
"Sorry, did I miss anything?"
"Well, you did miss Dumbledore's announcement, but it wasn't too important."
"What was it?"
"He just announced that the school provided an extra table for the sixth year students in the Family Life class because it would make the sitting arrangements easier since the couples consisted of both Slytherins and Gryffindors. Also, there would be a children's center where you could drop off your kids when you go to class, just so they won't distract you from school work."
"Thanks Harry."
"Your welcome."
"Oh and this is Owen. The little girl that Malfoy's holding is Eleina."
"Aw, Hermione. They look just like you and Malfoy. How cute." Harry joked while making a gag face to Ron who just laughed.
"Don't be mean, Harry. Where are your kids?"
"I only have one. Isabelle. She's sitting next to Pansy."
Hermione looked over at the little girl sitting across from her and waved. But Isabelle just hid behind Pansy taking little peaks at Hermione.
"She's a little shy." Pansy said to Hermione.
"Oh, well that's okay then."
They finished eating their breakfast and got up to go to their first class, but first they needed to go drop off the kids at the children center.
The children center was huge. There was a big window on the opposite side which really brightened up the room. There were also beds and cribs for nap time, about a million toys or so it seemed, and a small kitchen in the corner just incase some of the children got hungry. The room was split into two sections. The left side section was for the older kids, around four to five year olds, while the right side section was for the younger kids, one to three year olds. There were five young women and two older women inside who took care of the children.
"Wow, it must be terrible to have to work here." Hermione said looking around at all the crying babies and misbehaving kids.
"Yea, well someone's gotta do it." Draco said and walked over to one of the older ladies carrying a clipboard. "Hi, I'm Draco Malfoy and I'm here to drop of my kids."
"Oh yes, Mr. Malfoy. What are your children's names?"
"This is Eleina and his name is Owen."
"Thank you very much. You can set them down over there" The lady pointed towards the right side of the room and wrote down their names. "You can come pick them up whenever you're ready. We also have overnight stays just incase you have a really big project or something and don't have time to watch over them. Just make sure you let us know." Draco and Hermione thanked her and walked over to the right section. One of the girls working there walked up to them.
"Hello! My name is Alice. Here, let take these two from you." Alice said as she took Owen and Eleina from the parents. "You better get going or you'll both be late for class." And with that she walked away. Hermione was about to say something, but Draco pulled her hand and walked out of the children center.
"Hey! I just wanted to say bye to them."
"You'll see them later. We're going to be late for Potions if we stall any longer."
They walked down to the dungeons towards their Potions class. All the students were already there which left only one spot left for Draco and Hermione. They sat together in the back of the room when Snape walked into class.
"Today we will be making a sleeping potion that causes the person who drinks it to sleep for 3 days straight. You'll be working with the person sitting next to you, copy down the ingredients and start. When you finish, pour the potion into a jar and label it with your names. Turn them in at the end of class. You may begin." With that, Snape sat down at his desk in the front of the room and started working on something else. Students wrote down the ingredients and got up to get their supplies.
"I'll go get the ingredients." Draco said and got up. Hermione watched as he went to go pick up a jar from the cupboard when she noticed that his hand was covered with gashes. She watched him carry all the ingredients back to their desk and stared at his hand when he sat down.
"What happened?" Hermione asked and pointed to his hand that had red scratch marks.
"Nothing."
"Oh so those scratches appeared out of nowhere? Draco, just tell me what happened."
Draco sighed, "I'm not ready to talk about it yet, but I promise I'll tell you later, so will you please stop asking?"
Hermione could tell that he was getting rather annoyed with her and decided to just agree with him.
"I'm sorry." Hermione said softly a moment later.
"For what?"
"Being nosey, I guess."
"Just forget it."
They continued with their potion and by the end of the class, every student had finished and began to pour the potion into the jars. Each pair turned in the potion to Snape and walked out of the classroom to their next class. Hermione had Transfiguration while Draco went to DADA.
"I'll see you later" Hermione said once they got out of the classroom. Draco just nodded and walked away in the opposite direction. She walked towards the Transfiguration room when all of a sudden she felt something hit her on the side and caused her to crash into the wall. She fell down on the floor and put her hand to her head to see that she was bleeding.
The last thing she heard was, "Hermione, are you alright?!" Before she blanked out.