Draco Malfoy was sitting in his personal study contemplating if he was going to make an important business transaction. He was the President of his father's company which raked in about two billion Galleons a year. His father had started letting him make the big decisions with the company since, in a few years he would be the full owner. It was sort of a dull job really. All he had to do was sit in an office all day. Sometimes he did paperwork or kept unruly employees in check but, often times he would just sit on the computer all day watching to see if business agreements were accepted and followed through. His mind often wandered and, at that very moment he stared at the Witch Weekly magazine on his desk. He had been voted number one in the Hottest Wizard page this week and the Malfoy family had been voted number one for the Richest Wizarding Family page since the magazine had first been written.

"Master?" His personal house elf, Pinksy, said and opened the door. She was wearing a white dress marked with the Malfoy crest and was perfectly clean and healthy. In recent years, some group called S.P.E.W. fought for house elves rights and the Ministry of Magic had put a few laws in place. Now, it was illegal to physically abuse a house elf. They had to be well cared for and given proper garments to wear. Although, wizards could still verbally abuse them and put them in hideous colored clothing; the Malfoy's upheld the law. Some wizarding families had a great desire to get the whole lot of them put in Azkaban for good and, were looking for minor things they could put them back on trial for. Draco and Narcissa Malfoy had been let go almost at once at their trial. Draco made it seem like he was a pathetic child and had no idea what he was doing. Narcissa had saved Harry Potter's life thus making it possible to end the war. Harry was forever in Narcissa's debt and he pleaded with the court them to let her go so, he could make it up to her. What The Savior wanted was law. Draco was let go by default. Lucius Malfoy was, however, not so lucky. He did some truly despicable crimes and, had to go to Azkaban for two years. He was currently on house arrest which was mainly why he let Draco get into the family business so young.

"Master?" Pinksy said again. "The young Mistress is crying, again. I is allowed to help her now?" Pinksy's eyes filled with tears as Draco shook his blonde head no. This whole "young Mistress" thing was getting on his nerves. Actually, he was downright sick of it. Pinksy had been a gift from his girlfriend, Astoria Greengrass, for their one year anniversary together. For the first few months he was sympathetic towards her desire to help this little girl. After all, Pinksy wasn't born into the family so, she was probably sad to leave her old family behind. After a while of hearing things like "I is needing to help young Mistress" and "Young Mistress is crying because her fake family doesn't love her" he would just shake his head no and ignore her. He wanted to get rid of her but, his father had been upset to hear this from his son. "It's a gift from your wife-to-be." Yeah right. He wouldn't marry Astoria even if his life depended on it.

There were things about Astoria that he liked, sort of. She was a pureblood, for one and, his family approved of her. She was quite pretty; he loved her raven black hair and aquamarine colored eyes. She was slender and had curves in all the right places but, she wasn't the girl for him. She was mean and blackmailed him if he wasn't doing the things she wanted. She was money hungry and only took the best, which was why she had decided to marry him in the first place. He knew she didn't love him. And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. His mother and father always kept going on about how they needed a Malfoy heir. If it was up to him he would remain single until the right girl came along. His father laughed at the idea. Narcissa Malfoy told him he was being selfish. He had pleaded and bargained with them if he could do anything to get Astoria out of his life for good. After a good deal of thought they had said, "If somehow you have a child, boy or girl, with someone else" which made his spirits sink. Oviously, he would know if any of his past girlfriends had a child, he only dated his parent's close friend's daughters. If only he knew…

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Hermione waited until everyone left to take Rose downstairs. It wasn't just for her daughter's sake it was for hers. What Victoire said to her baby made her pale and shaky. She didn't want to face anyone looking like that.

"Do you want to open your presents now, princess?" Hermione said to the sweet little girl in her arms. It was a wizard tradition that no one saw what you got for you birthday. That had always made Hermione wonder if the Weasley's were giving Rose the same amount of stuff as the other children. She had always known Mrs. Weasley suspected something. Hopefully she wasn't taking it out on her pretty little princess.

Rose picked up the first present in front of her wrapped in pale pink wrapping paper. She tore off little pieces at a time. Hermione stared at the clock the entire time it took Rose to open the gift. Finally, after 30 minutes, Rose had opened her first present. Her little face scrunched up in a glare and there was that telltale smirk on her face as she looked at the gift in her arms.

"Rosie Posy, what's wrong?" Hermione said. She hated when Rose got like this. It made her think of unhappy thoughts about him…

"Mummy, I said I wanted an iPod Touch and they got me a dumb MP3 player. I said I wanted the name brand one but they gave me a-a generic one," Rose whimpered. Tears dotted her slivery eyes again. Hermione didn't even know she knew what the word generic meant.

There were things she knew for certain about her daughter. She was going to be put in Slytherin house, no doubt about it. The Sorting Hat wouldn't even give her a choice. She was a Slytherin down to the last platinum blonde hair on her pretty little head. It also wasn't terribly uncommon for a halfblood to be in that particular house, like it was for a muggle born wizard. She wasn't sure what Ron's reaction would be. He would probably throw a fit and make Headmistress McGonagall put the hat back on her head to be rehoused. She would probably allow Rose to try it on again but, the hat would probably remain firm. Yes she was extremely smart but, she wouldn't get put in Ravenclaw. She was brave but, definitely not a Gryffindor (Hermione would know). Hufflepuff wouldn't even begin to know how to deal with her. She just hoped Ron would get over it eventually.

Rose opened a second present and the same thing happened, again.

Ginny and Harry had given her a few pairs of earrings (along with five outfits) since, her Gramma Jean and Papa David had taken her to get her ears pierced the previous year, when they were watching her. Hermione was appalled they didn't even ask her to come. (Although she would have told them Rose was, under no circumstances, getting her ears pierced). But, they did and, Rose had loved it, besides the "ouchie in her ears." Hermione didn't have the heart to tell her to take them out so the holes would close. This time Rose actually started crying. Hermione didn't know what was going on with her. She was confused because Rose only had two pairs of earrings. She was always begging for more.

"They're not real," she sobbed. Tears flooded her face. "The –the stones… they are f- fake… it's not real gold and gray on the b-backs neither!"

"Shut up! Quidditch is on!" Ron hollered out from the next room. Peace and quiet, is that too much to ask for? Ron thought as he chugged down another glass of Ogden's Firewhiskey.

"Ok, Rose. I think we have had a long day," Hermione said as she saw Rose's reaction to Ron's shouts. (She had tried to crawl under the couch) Rose would do better with some sleep. She scooped Rose up and took her back up to her room. She helped her out of her dress and into her blue pajamas with the stars on them. Rose picked out her favorite bedtime story, Rosie's Rabbit, from the large book shelf in the corner of her room. She climbed up on her bed and begged Hermione to read it to her. Hermione couldn't object to her baby. As she was reading she felt her mind wander, to places she wished it would never go to.

Normally, the whole earing thing would have made any other parent laugh. Not Hermione. It felt like her stomach was going up her throat. Rose was becoming more like her father every day. She didn't have the heart to tell Ron. She had thought that maybe she could tell Ginny but, she wasn't ready for that yet. Maybe in a few more years she would tell the whole Weasley and Potter clan. Yeah. That would work. But someone else would want to know too, not just Ron and his family, a little voice in her head whispered to her. Draco Malfoy would probably want to know that he has a daughter, too… even if she isn't worthy enough to his family.

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Hermione woke up the next morning feeling peaceful and content. She was off of work that day and, was going to spend the day in the park with Rose. She got up and opened the curtains, letting the light cascade out into the room. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and, there was not a single cloud in the luscious blue sky.

Hermione made blueberry muffins for Rose and her. Ron was going out with the guys and, wasn't going to be home until late. She would get to spend the day with Rose by herself.

"Stay here and eat while Mummy goes and pays the owl for The Daily Prophet," Hermione told Rose as she heard an owl hooting and scratching at the front door. Hermione got up of the wooden kitchen chair and walked down the hallway. She opened the door and deposited five Knuts into the pouch on the brown Ministry owl's leg. Hermione threw the paper on the kitchen table not even bothering to read it. It was the first time in a long time she was going to have Rose to herself and, she was definitely going to make the most out of it.

Hermione took her baby girl to the little wizard park near their house. There were a lot of people there but, there usually were on a nice day. Rose absolutely loved the blue swings. Hermione liked to put her in the baby swing so she wouldn't fall out. It had made Hermione feel safer. She almost cried the first day Rose wanted to try out the bigger ones (the swings that were only just a strip of rubber).Hermione had let her but, she still normally went on the little ones. Rose had just decided recently she was too big for those swings and would only use the ones that the older kids used.

Hermione sighed as she pushed Rose on the swings. Rose giggled as Hermione pushed her higher and higher. She loved when Rose laughed. Suddenly, Rose stopped and, Hermione instantly knew something was wrong. Hermione stopped pushing her daughter and let the swing go on its own, watching it get lower and lower until Rose put her feet on the ground.

"Mummy, they're pointing at you," Rose said, in a very low voice. Hermione glanced around and saw two middle aged witches staring and pointing at her and Rose. They were each holding The Daily Prophet in their hands and pretended to read it when Hermione looked over at them.

"Come on Rosie, let's go home. I'll take you to get ice cream later if we leave now," Hermione said to Rose who smirked when she mentioned the ice cream. "We are going to Apparate home, ok? I want you to hold onto me very tight or, you could get hurt. Hermione would have normally walked home with Rose but, she needed to get home quickly to see something.

They both arrived in the front yard with the cracking sound of Apparating. Hermione ran into the house and set Rose on the floor. She ran to the kitchen table and got The Daily Prophet. Hermione's eyes scanned the cover page:

Rose Weasley: A Weasley After All? What is Hermione Granger Hiding?

Rose Weasley's parentage has been a mystery to all of us Fleur Delacour (now Weasley) told us. There could be a slight chance that Ronald Bilius Weasley is the father after all but, where does the blonde hair and gray eyes come from? Surely, not from biological mother Hermione Granger (now Weasley)…

Hermione couldn't bear to read on any longer. She looked down to see her daughter's little face plastered on the front cover. Hermione didn't care about what the article said. All she cared about was that Rose was on the cover. Her heart nearly stopped when the picture of her little girl showed her sparkling silver eyes, her platinum blonde hair, and the huge smirk on her face that she was showing to the whole wizarding world. Those were the telltale signs revealing Hermione's biggest secret and lie.

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So, I wasn't completely happy with this chapter but tell me what you think. Reviews make me want to keep going on this! I don't own any of the characters, J.K. Rowling does.