Disclaimer: I do no own Harry Potter.

A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! They mean a lot. I replied to everyone but if you aren't signed it, I can't reply. Also, another BIG thanks to my beta, Modges, who is the best ever.

Even several years later, Draco would look back on that day and wish he had a time turner. If he did, he would go back and smack himself for thinking 'what's the worst that could happen?'. It started out well enough. Blaise had practically dragged Hermione into their private room. As Draco followed behind, he was grateful to find that his father had not yet arrived. He did see Blaise's father, as well as Theo's. He followed Hermione and Blaise, intent on telling Hermione that their father was going to be there shortly.

"Cassi, you should know that Father is going to be here as well."

"Of course. Well, I was going to need to see him eventually I guess. At least there are witnesses here," she joked. Blaise stood there, casting confused glances at the both of them. At that moment, Blaise's father approached the group.

"Blaise. Draco. Won't one of you introduce this beautiful young lady to me?"

"Father, this is Cassiopeia Malfoy. Cassiopeia, this is my father, Lord Alessandro Zabini."

"Ah, Cassiopeia, E 'un piacere incontrare una donna giovane e bella come."

Hermione's face flushed bright red.

"Grazie, Signore Zabini. Sei molto bello pure," she countered.

"Ah, you speak Italian! Come, sit with me and tell me all about yourself. It's not often we have someone new in our meetings," Alessandro said as he took Hermione's arm and led her to a chair. Blaise and Draco just stared after them, wondering what just happened.

"Mate, your father is too smooth for his own good. You don't think he was hitting on her, do you?"

"You never know with my father, you never know. What was all that about with your father? What's going on, Draco? Your father hasn't been himself in months and neither have you. Then you just show up with a sister out of the blue?"

"I know, I know. Look, I'm not going to explain everything right now. Like I said, I had no idea I even had a sister. Mother and Father didn't even tell me until right before my seventeenth birthday. I would have told you but Father was convinced she was dead and forbade (sp?) me to say anything to anyone. The charms she had on her finally wore off not that long ago and needless to say, Father hasn't been taking it well. Neither has she really, but I'll tell you more about that later."

"Yeah, sure. I'm just worried, you know?"

"Thanks, mate. I really think things are going to be okay from now on though. At least, I really hope so. Hey, is Theo coming?"

"He is. He said he was going to be a bit late though."

At that moment, laughter was heard outside of the door. Lucius and Severus walked in together, Lucius laughing at something that Severus had said. Hermione, at hearing the noise, had looked up towards the door. A surprised look quickly crossed her face as she took in the carefree look on Lucius's face. Alessandro and Sebastian Nott, who had joined their conversation, both looked over to see what she was looking at.

"Ah, Lucius, Severus, there you are! Lucius, I was just having a fascinating conversation with your lovely daughter. There aren't many people here in London that can keep up a dialogue in Italian with me. I'm very impressed! We might have to talk about a contract!"

Hermione looked over to Draco, confused. She noticed that Blaise looked thoughtful, but Draco was glaring at him. When his eyes met hers, she mouthed 'contract?'. To which he mouthed back 'later'. She turned her attention back to Lucius and Severus. At the mention of her name, the carefree look on Lucius's face had gone, leaving in its place the blank mask she normally associated with him. She shifted her attention to Severus and saw him looking at her with concern. She gave him a smile.

"Uncle Sev, it's nice to see you again," she said. Then she turned to greet her father with a polite nod. "Lucius."

A flicker of some emotion she couldn't quite place flashed across his face. It was gone as quickly as it appeared.

"Cassiopeia. This is certainly a surprise."

"Yes. Draco dragged me here for a late lunch and then Mr. Zabini over there dragged me to this meeting. I didn't mean to intrude," she said with a smile directed to Draco and Blaise to let them know she was teasing.

"Nonsense, it's no intrusion," Severus replied. She shot him a grateful smile. She knew that he could tell that she was uncomfortable being in the same vicinity as Lucius. Alessandro started to engage both Severus and Lucius in conversation about the newest offerings at the apothecary that Malfoy Inc owned. At the same time, Sebastian came over to her, wanting to finish learning her thoughts on the newest charms article. The whole time they were talking, she could feel Lucius's eyes on her. It was starting to make her feel even more uncomfortable than she already was. She decided that it was time for her leave. Harry was expecting her for dinner and she just didn't want to be there anymore. She politely made her excuses to Sebastian and walked over to where Draco and Blaise were talking.

"Draco, I should really go. I'm having dinner with Harry in about 30 minutes. I enjoyed spending the day with you-" she started to say when Lucius interrupted her.

"Absolutely not."

She whirled around to find him standing right behind her.

"'Absolutely not' what?"

"You are not meeting that boy for dinner and you are not going back to that house! I've told your mother since day one, you belong with us, at the Manor. This has gone on long enough. Draco will accompany you to collect your things and then you will go with him to the Manor."

Hermione's jaw dropped in shock. She couldn't believe anything he just said. She noticed Draco had the same look on his face, but Severus was looking at her warily.

"I...what?"

"You heard me. You are a Malfoy and you will start acting like one. You are lucky I've waited this long to put my foot down. You will do as I say."

Draco, knowing this probably wasn't going to end well, spoke up.

"Father, this probably isn't the best place. Why don't you wait-"

"Silence! You will go with your sister and you will do it now."

"No," Hermione spat out, finally getting over the shock. "There is absolutely no way I am stepping one foot into Malfoy Manor. I'm of age, you can't order me about like I'm one of your house elves."

"I think you'll find that I can and I will, young lady. Perhaps you are unaware, but I am the head of this family and as you are unmarried, Pureblood law states that you must answer to me."

Hermione was incensed. The wizarding world could be so backwards and sexist, it was unbelievable!

"I will say this one more time. I am not going to Malfoy Manor. I don't care what you think you can do, I can assure you, it won't happen."

"There is no question! I will not have you continuing to live in that house, it's not proper. I will not have my daughter continuing to gallivant around like she is Potter's whore!"

Hermione sucked in a deep breath as if she had been punched in the stomach. She faintly heard Draco's outraged 'Father!' but it was difficult to hear over the sound of pounding in her ears. Never before had words so deeply hurt her, even being called a mudblood. She wasn't sure why it hurt so badly. Even though this was her father, it wasn't like she grew up with him, it wasn't like she loved him. So then why did it feel like he had just tore her heart out of her chest and stomped on it? Why did she feel tears threatening to spill from her eyes. As she looked Lucius straight in the eye, she thought she saw a brief look of guilt flash over it, but it was gone so quickly she wasn't sure if she imagined it. Suddenly, her hurt turned to anger. Serious anger. She whipped out her wand and pointed it straight at his heart.

"You bastard. You complete, utter, unqualified bastard! How dare you call me that? You know nothing about me! If you wanted me to act like the perfect little Malfoy, then maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to give me away like I was nothing!"

With each word, she advanced on him, until she was standing face to face and her wand was poking into his chest. He continued to look unalarmed that she was standing there with her wand pointed at him. That is, until he looked down and got a good look at her wand.

"Where did you get that wand?"

"Oh, this wand? Nice, isn't it? I took it from dear dead Auntie Bella after she crucioed me with it. Oh wait, no, I'm sorry. I took it after she crucioed me and then carved words into my arm with a knife. All the while with my father standing right there watching. In fact, he was even going to call Voldemort to come get me and my friends after that."

The room was so quiet at this point that you could hear a pin drop. The Zabinis and Lord Nott looked horrified, while Draco looked like he was about to kill Lucius. Severus was just looking at her, concerned.

"So you do whatever you think you need to do to keep your daughter from being someone's whore. Let me warn you, however, if you even try it, I will disappear into the Muggle world so fast and so hard, you won't ever be able to find me. Good luck explaining that to Narcissa."

With that said, she turned on her heel and strode towards the door. As she reached it, she turned back toward Lucius and stated, "And by the way, I own Grimmauld Place. Maybe Harry is my whore, not the other way around." She then walked out of the door, slamming it behind her.

The sound of the door slamming seemed to rouse everyone from their shocked states. Severus said nothing. He just shot Lucius his patented death glare and left the room, presumably to go after Hermione. Lucius rounded on Draco, who was still looking at him like he wanted to kill him. He pointed his cane at him and stated, "You knew."

"I figured it out, on my own, two days ago. Don't try to pin this on me. What in Salazar's name were you thinking? You just called your own daughter a whore and now we'll be lucky to ever see her again!"

"Lucius, just what is going on here?" Alessandro asked.

"The twin girl that was born after Draco, she wasn't stillborn like we told everyone. The Dark Lord came to me after he found out about the twins. He was going to take her from us. We did the only thing we could and placed her with another family for her safety."

"Yeah well, that completely failed, didn't it?" Draco spat out.

"Watch your tone, boy. I had no idea she was your sister. I didn't know."

Draco eyed his father. His carefully placed mask was starting to slip. What he saw instead was the look of a defeated man who had completely failed his daughter.

Blaise couldn't contain his curiosity any longer. "Who is she?"

"Hermione Granger," Draco answered.

Severus couldn't believe the stupidity that Lucius had just displayed. He hurried after Hermione, hoping to catch up to her before she attempted to Apparate. Apparition could be a tricky bit of magic during normal circumstances, while upset it could be downright dangerous. He didn't get far before he stopped short, spotting Hermione slumped heavily against the wall just outside the room. He said nothing as he walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him with tears running down her face. The next thing Severus knew, his arms were filled with a crying witch. After a few moments of comfort, he murmured in her ear, "You know, you Malfoy women are starting to make crying all over me a habit. I'm not sure I like it." His comment had the desired effect as he heard Hermione give a watery chuckle. He pushed her slightly away from him so he could gently wipe away her tears.

"Come on, I'll Apparate you home. Then you may explain to me how it is that you came to own Grimmauld Place and not Potter."

"Can I just go back in there and throw one hex his way? I'm starting to regret that I didn't get one in before I stormed out."

"Don't worry, I'm sure Narcissa will handle that for you once she hears word of what happened."

"Good point. Alright, let's go. I should have been back by now, Harry is going to start to worry. And Severus? Thanks for letting me cry all over you."

Severus took her arm and led her to the Apparition point. They were back at Grimmauld Place in a flash. Hermione was right about Harry being worried, he rushed in the room as soon as he heard them arrive.

"Hermione! Is everything ok? Are you crying? What's wrong?"

"Take a breath, Potter, and stop badgering the poor girl," Severus responded.

"I'm alright now, Harry. Draco and I went to lunch and right after, some of his friends started to show up. I guess they meet at the restaurant pretty regularly. Anyway, things were fine until Lucius showed up."

"Oh crap."

"Yeah. Things were going okay at first. Then I mentioned I had to get going because I was meeting you and he just blew up. He said he had enough of me living here and I was going to move to the Manor today. I refused, of course. He then proceeded to call me your whore and that's when I pulled my wand on him."

"My whore, huh? I must say, Hermione, you certainly don't perform those types of activities for me. I guess I'm going to have to find a new whore."

"Shut it," she said as she laughed at him.

"So if you pulled your wand, I'm guessing he recognized it?"

"Yeah, he knows who I am now."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. Uncle Sev wouldn't let me go back and hex him. I've been the most nervous about seeing him as opposed to Narcissa and Draco. While I wasn't planning on meeting with him today, I thought maybe being in a group like that would be better for the first time. I guess I was wrong."

"I'll talk to him. I'm not sure why he reacted that way," Severus interjected. "Now, I want to know about your parting shot. Brilliantly done, by the way."

"We've kept this quiet, no one knows besides Harry and myself. Well, Remus did but... Anyway, Sirius left everything to Harry and me, split right down the middle, half to each of us. There were four properties so we each chose the two we wanted. I chose Grimmauld."

"Why would he do that? Everyone thinks he left everything to Potter."

"That's what we wanted everyone to think. Can you imagine what the gossip would have been like if anyone knew? Hermione and I talked about it at length, neither of us know why he did it and he left no indication," Harry answered. Hermione suddenly gasped as a thought came to her.

"Do you think it's possible he figured it out? That I was Narcissa's daughter? Every once in a while, I would catch him narrowing his eyes at me, like he was trying to figure something out."

"It's possible, I suppose. As much as I disliked the mutt, he always did have excellent observational skills," Severus answered.

"It's certainly something to think about. Harry, I'm sorry, do you mind if we postpone dinner? I'm suddenly very exhausted."

"Not at all. Do you need anything?"

"No, thank you. I'll see you in the morning. Uncle Sev, thanks again," she said as she got up. She kissed each man on the cheek and left the room, leaving Harry and Severus alone.

A/N2: Lucius, Lucius, Lucius *shakes head*, what were you thinking? Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

The Italian is from Google translate so if it's not correct, I'm sorry.

(it is a pleasure to meet such a beautiful young woman)

(you are very handsome as well)