A/N Back to the Dramione action!
Lost and Found
Part X
Another memory
Draco:
He finally reached the Head's compartment to find Hermione deep in thought. When he closed the door she looked up at him. The baby started squirming in his arms.
"Er… Her-Hermione er… well he kind of needs to be changed."
Hermione snickered and dug through the bag beside her. When she sat back up she had a diaper, baby wipes, and the powder. "Here Draco."
He noticed that the things she had received were being offered to him and his eyes widened. This was uncomfortable enough without having to do it all himself. Again she snickered at him while she laid her things down on the seat.
"Here let me have him. Be warned after today you'll be changing at least half of the changing and feedings alright?"
Happily handing over the reeking baby he hadn't really caught all of what she had said. That was until she stepped on his foot.
"God woman what was that for?"
"You really need to pay more attention to things. After five months of abuse you think you would have learned but I suppose not."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing, we can talk later. Right now I want you to watch me okay? It's the only way you're ever going to learn."
"Sure but I'll hold you to that."
"I know you will," she muttered softly as she went to work removing the dirty diaper.
She slipped it off and he leaned now closer to her. Draco was so close he could smell the strawberry shampoo she had used, even over the putrid odor. Suddenly the room when dark everything slowly disappeared before him.
He was wrapped in that darkness with only the sweet scent of strawberries to guide him. Slowly the room came into focus but it was no longer the compartment or even the train. It was a bedroom; a fire flickering from off to the side but the only thing he saw was the girl beside him.
It was the same girl from the shower all of those months ago. He could tell by the way her body curved and how her lay around her. He brought his lips to her neck and was overtaken by the strawberry scent.
That same lingering smell that leaked from Hermione. She slowly turned to face him, smiling broadly.
"I love you Draco, more than you will ever know."
"I love you more than the myself, and I always will."
"Really now? I didn't know you could love anyone more than yourself."
"Now is not the time for your petty remarks my love."
"Ah so what should we do then? I don't know if I can handle much more tonight."
"Does making love to me tire you that much?"
"Only after about five times in a few hours."
"Pathetic! I think I could go on all night!"
"Draco?"
"Yes love?"
"Draco!"
"What?"
He was jerked from trance quite suddenly. Hermione was already finished with the baby and was staring up at him.
"Are you okay? You sort of blanked out."
:"Er sorry I didn't mean to."
"What happened? Did you remember something?"
"How do you know I can't remember stuff?"
"I was there the night they put the memory charm on you. Do you remember anything at all?" she asked warily, not wanting him to become angry.
He gave her a puzzled look and settled down on the seat opposite her. "It's none of your business really. Why do you care anyways?"
The tears were already forming in her eyes. He could see the pain she was feeling he could feel it himself. Her feelings were only the same as the ones he felt day in and day out. But it was time to get answers no matter how much she cried.
As she continued to stare at him he reached into his pocket. He had been carrying the note around everywhere. Now he handed it back to her, he wanted to see her reaction.
Hermione:
He still has the note? Hermione reached into the baby bag and brought out Scorpius's car seat. With the flick of a wand it grew back to normal size and she was able to set down the baby.
She took the note slowly and unfolded the parchment. It was only about six months old and yet the paper was slightly torn as if it had been read many times.
She read it over and over again. It was the last thing they had done together before the ministry. Hermione never wanted to let go of that night, because it was so perfect. Or would have been.
Once again she met his eyes reading them of all they could tell her. They were misty, far-off. That confusion that he felt was strong and growing by the minute.
Finally he spoke to her but only in a soft whisper. "Do you love me Hermione?"
For a second she was shocked but not to the point where he took any notice. "I love you Draco, more than you will ever know."
"Do I really love you?"
These questions were awkward but if this was what he wanted to know so be it. "You always said that you loved me more than yourself."
"So it's real?"
"What?"
"My flash thing," he looked nervous and scared beyond belief.
"Can you tell me about it?" his eyes widened and he shook his head. "Was it that bad? Goodness Dumbledore said you would probably only regain those more graphic memories at first."
"I've been blocking those out. I don't want to see that in my head! And stop talking like it some type of fucking shag scene anyway."
"I'm sorry. I was just saying." and she was. That was what Dumbledore had told her.
He shook off her apology and turned to stare out the window. She reached out carefully; she had to do it while he wasn't paying attention. She touched his hand and was instantly overcome with his muttled memories.
Bits and pieces came flying by but nothing was together they had been shattered. Finally she found the two largest memories of them. One was the shower after the Quidditch match the other was a night they had spent together in the Room of Requirement.
She pulled back out of the swirling mist she was in, like coming out of a trance. Hermione looked at him, sitting there amazed and shocked. She smiled slightly and asked, "So which one was it?"
"The one in… bed."
"That wasn't even that bad really. The shower one was worse though you have it cut off."
"How did you learn to do that? I don't know anyone else who can do that except—"
"Yourself? You taught me how last year in November I think."
Draco:
That had to be the truth because no one else could have taught her that, not even Dumbledore. Watching another's memories was not hard but without the incantation or a wand it was bloody difficult. He had barely mastered it during the summer before sixth year, a time that he could remember slightly.
Hermione had said November and he had figured that Scorpius had been made in around December but that still left all of October, January, and February. He looked up at her expectantly, but Hermione was busy with something else. Draco could not explain the new attraction he was beginning to feel towards her. Her beautiful face and body helped but something he different pulled at him.
She had said she loved him and she probably always would. The awkward tension was long gone and now was replaced with the nervous jitters of a first date. But it felt to right to hide, to right to give up on.
"Draco?"
"Mmmh?"
"Do you remember this?" She held out a dazzling opal necklace on a silver chain. The stone shone beyond belief. Everlasting gemstones.
Only one witch could make them like that and she lived so far away it was almost impossible to get one. They were incredibly expensive even to the richest of people. He didn't remember giving the necklace to her but he did remember being given it by his mother.
There were a lot of things he could learn from this girl and if he ever wanted to gain them back this was the way to go. Before he could ask any questions, however, Scorpius decided it was time to wake up. Hermione looked at him but since he was not crying she just rocked his little seat back and forth.
He was surprised how well the infant was doing on the train ride since it was already half way over. Truthfully he hadn't even remembered them leaving the platform. Scorpius suddenly started wailing from out of the blue, startling Draco terribly.
Draco had been minding his own business, watching the scenery fly by the window but at the first hint of a cry he had jumped about a foot off the seat. Hermione reached down and pulled Scorpius from his seat carefully. His cry slipped back to whimpers, allowing her time to find his bottle.
She came back up and set it down beside her. "Draco do you feel like feeding him his bottle?"
"Er… yeah I guess."
The grin on her face seemed to grow with every passing second. "Here, take him and I'll warm this up really quick. Don't freak out if he cries again."
He nodded absentmindedly fixing himself better to take the baby. Scorpius was settled down and snuggled into the crook of his arm easily. Draco could never imagine his father holding him like this, or holding him at all. Hermione shoved the warm bottle in front of him and he took it warily.
Though he had never fed a baby before he knew pretty much what was done, and it wouldn't matter if he had done it millions of time Hermione would still be coaching from the background. When he offered the bottle to his son he was amazed by the sheer power he was using to get his milk.
The baby was a full-blown glutton. Surprisingly Hermione didn't say a word the entire time, but she did keep holding his hand up higher. Though he wouldn't really call it fun, he was having a pretty good trip just learning how to take care of his son and recovering bits and pieces from the past.
Once he had looked up at Hermione to see her staring at a little moving picture tight in her grasp, tears falling freely. He couldn't say he loved her at the moment but clearly he did not hate her anymore. The pain of not knowing was still his pain but hers was one of loss.
Compassion and guilt pulled on his soul. With no one around now was the perfect time to show her he cared, in some small form or another he did care. Hermione was lost in a trance of the past, the pain of the present, and the loss of a future.
She did not see he stand up or acknowledge the fact that he had laid the baby back down (without burping him!). Draco looked over her shoulder to see the picture. There he was Hermione pulled up in front of him. They both had big smiles and loving looks on their faces.
He could not place the room in which they stood and he would not have been able to tell when it was taken either if there had not been the big Christmas tree in the back. It was decorated in their House colors; everything else seemed to match as well. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her and sat down so he could pull her onto his lap.
Hermione looked at him sadly but didn't say a word. This was the comfort she had been missing for so long when she needed it so much. He rocked her barely and so slow it was almost unknowable. For a moment the world seemed perfect again, like nothing would ever go wrong.
When her tears and sobs had subsided she looked up at him, waiting for what he would do next, but he just returned her gaze. She looked back down at the picture watching the happy couple laugh at some unspoken joke. Finally she flipped it over, no longer willing to torture herself.
He read the beautifully written words Christmas 1996. "I'm not sure which night it really was, you know. It could have been this night or New Years Eve,"
It was almost as if she had read his questions from his mind.
A/N Wow I can't believe how long this thing is already. It's the longest one I've ever written though it's not completed. I was really thinking about posting it but nah.