Lost and Found

Chapter XIX

The Goddess

Hermione

She sat nervously next to Draco, squeezing his hand in return. She was not quite sure how this would go. With a quick glance she was able to tell that Draco was uneasy himself. The exact emotions were clouded, but slightly visible.

His gray eyes were staring straight ahead, into the abyss. Then another low noise arose from the far corner. The entire room seemed to be watching as the tall wooden doors slid open.

A group of people filed in, about ten in all. Near the back a young woman stood, no more than twenty-five or so. But Hermione was not focused on the woman, she had her arms trained to the bundle in her arms. From such a distance Hermione could not make out the details on the little girl's face, but there was no doubt that she was a Malfoy.

Her thin wisps of blond hair shot from her head in unruly curls and the ear splitting scream a moment later reminded her heavily of Scorpius. As the thought streamed through her head she managed a glance backwards. Narcissa seemed more than capable of taking care of him.

She turned back and caught the look of awe and love in her lover's eyes. "Draco.." she whispered. "She's lovely."

Draco turned to her for a moment a proud smile dancing on his lips. And with that, it all began.

Draco

He could not take his eyes off of the little one. He'd only seen her once, and that seemed so far away. Hermione was quite right, she was lovely. Alana.. the name dancing in his thoughts. It was fitting to be tied to the Malfoy name.

It still hadn't occurred to him exactly why the little girl even existed, but he didn't really want to know. He couldn't imagine how hard it was for Hermione to sit here and except that, like it or not, they would be bringing another baby home. They had barely gotten into a routine with the first before this one showed up.

He gulped back his worries and fears as the healer from the other day got closer. She slipped into the seat closest to him turning the baby around so that she was facing him. Alana let out another wail, and he smiled. The healer tried her best, but even turning her away just made the baby scream more and more.

At last she faced him once more, red faced and very angry. A shockingly familiar look held his eyes. A gasp seemed to be caught in his throat, although his mouth had dropped. As smoothly as possible he turned back to Hermione. Her head was cocked ever so slightly, her chocolate eyes lit in amazement. Then they met his.

Hermione opened her mouth a bit, taking a deep breath. "Draco, she looks like me,"she told him, shaking her head. "That's not possible!"

From somewhere above them somebody cleared there throat. Both of their heads snapped upward. "Are you ready now? Or would you like us to wait a bit longer?" the minister's voice did not sound very happy at the moment.

"Excuse us sir, but something came up. I was wondering, however, if we could have another blood test taken?"

"I assure you Mr. Malfoy, my tests were flawless," the young woman beside him stated. "This is your daughter."

"I'm sorry if I was unclear Miss, but I would like to have my fiancé tested to be sure," he said coolly.

"I do not see how this is relevant to the custody hearing Mr. Malfoy. This is between you and your parents."

Draco's eyes darted back up before he stated "I understand this, sir. But even you must see the resemblance? I-- We must be certain before anything is cleared, correct?"

"As you wish. Healer?"

"Of course Minister! I can have everything ready, five minutes top," she said quickly, before she thought about the baby in her arms. "Minister?"

"I'll take her."

"Yes, of course."

Hermione

She quickly found her self entranced by the rich eyes, her eyes. Why hadn't Draco noticed this before now? She asked herself. Had he been that shocked?

Then her thoughts jumped violently to another scenario. Was this the baby she had lost so long ago? It wasn't possible, was it?

She couldn't help but hope. Perhaps this was the very same baby, taken from her by some dark magic and kept as safe as possible. And with that little thought she couldn't help but smile.

The baby was looking up at her with a questioning look. As Hermione looked the little one over she felt a twinge of guilt for ever having been jealous over such an adorable creature. And the more she looked the more she was sure that this, somehow, was her little girl, too.

When the young healer returned moments later to announce that she was ready for her, Hermione stood, stealing a quick glance at the woman who would, one day soon, be her mother-in-law.

Narcissa held a tiny smile and a very happy gleam was in her brilliant blue eyes. She turned to Hermione and nodded slightly, as if she had known this along. Hermione, herself, was holding no other feeling but pure happiness.

She didn't know how things would turn out after today, but she couldn't help feeling every bit as confident as the woman smiling down at her. Hermione flashed a smile back and took a bold step towards the healer.

Draco

For right now at least, he felt pretty good. The little girl seemed perfectly content in his arms, searching the room. He didn't think to highly of himself at the moment though, he hadn't even noticed the little girl's eyes. She even had Hermione's curls, though they were the color of his own hair.

To break his thought baby Alana, or Ali as he had started to call her in his thoughts, reached up to him, lightly smacking him on the chest. He snickered at her a bit and grabbed her tiny hand.

Finally, just as Hermione was coming back to the table, Ali smiled up at him, giggling only a moment later. As she sat down, Hermione reached over and took the girl in her own arms.

Then, she whispered something to the little one, "You shouldn't laugh at your Daddy, he can't help it he looks funny."

With that she turned and smiled at him, "No more abusing my daughter, Malfoy, okay?"

"I'll abuse-- Wait, what?"

"I told you to leave my daughter alone."

He didn't think his next move completely through, but next thing he knew there was one little girl squashed between him and Hermione, an amused audience, and one very irate Minister.

"All right, this hearing is officially over!" he yelled at the room. "Custody of the child in question, Eris Alana Malfoy, is granted to young Mr. Malfoy and his fiancé!"

By the time that everyone had really understood the final words of their annoyed Minister, he was already leaving the room. Most of the people in the room were celebrating right along with Draco and Hermione, and those that weren't were making there leave. That is except a very dangerous looking Lucius.

"Father?" he asked, stunned at such a public display.

"How dare you? You ruin everything, Draco, everything!" he growled in a low voice. "I need that girl!"

"You are not taking anything away from him, Lucius. Why can't you just let him be happy for once in his life?" came his mother's angry voice.

"Draco," came Hermione's soft whisper behind him, "I want Scorpi."

Before he could say anything, though, Narcissa came over and placed the boy in his arms, muttering to herself. By this time Lucius was turning rather pink in his anger, something Draco had never seen before.

Moments later he had his wand out pointing it in a very dangerous position. The guards that had remained around the doors were already heading towards the commotion. Draco managed to shift out of the way before his father sent a stunning spell towards the baby in his arms, something that would have been fatal.

Soon there after the two guards were dragging the fuming man out of the room, back towards the dark cells he belonged in. But before they had a chance to get him away, Lucius spat three frightening words towards the family, "He will come!"

And somewhere deep inside his soul Draco knew his father, as crazy as he was, was speaking the truth. For what ever reason, the Dark Lord was after his pretty little girl. He closed his eyes to block out everything around him for the moment when he felt Hermione's hand on his arm.

She looked up at him sadly, running her fingers down his arm. No words were said between the two, enough could be read from the looks in each others' eyes.

A.N. Hi guys!! I'm ever so sorry that this has taken this long to get a new chapter up. In fact it's been so long that I had to re-read the thing off of ffnet just so I knew what was going on.

I have to say that I really was just going to abandon the poor story because I thought that it wasn't any good. But now I am refreshed and have this next part, even though it is shorter than some of the others. I plan to wrap it up in one or two more chapters.

The next will have the others in it (meaning Ron, Harry, and Ginny). I plan to fix that up a bit and try to make it a little better since I nearly ignored the them through the entire story. And, if I can fit it, Dumbledore will happily explain why the Ministry have completely backed off. Sorry 'bout that too.

(I forgot that you all don't know what I'm thinking… oops!)

So, until next time, Goodbye!

Lil