Hermione held her breath and Harry grabbed her hand. "It will be ok, Mione." Hermione nodded and brushed a stray curl out of her face.

"All rise to the court case of Ronald Bilius Weasley who has chosen to be innocent of abusing four year old Rose Weasley. Will the witness come to the stand," the judge said.

A hesitant Pinksy walked up to the witness stand (The Malfoys allowed her to come and tell what happened the night Rose was abused). She sat on the chair and trembled. Her eyes were watery and, she kept wiping her nose.

"What were you doing the afternoon, Rose was attacked?" Ron's lawyer asked her.

"Well, I was bickering with Master Draco. He's always telling me to go away but, Pinksy knows she had to get Master Malfoy's approval to leave the house to save the young Mistress. Pinksy heard young Mistress call for anyone's help. You sees, as long as the young Mistress didn't call for anyone directly, Pinksy could come sir since, Master Draco forbade it," the house elf said.

"Why did Draco Malfoy, forbid you to go?"

"Objection your Honor, this has nothing to do with the case," Rose's lawyer said. The judge hit his hammer on the table.

"What did you find when you got to the Weasley's house?" Ron's lawyer said and asked another question.

"Mr. Weasley was standing over the young Mistress with a knife and Pinksy snaps her fingers and makes it disappears. She makes the bottle of Firewhiskey smash on his head and the Mr. Weasley falls and passes out. The young Mistress was hurt real bad and was crying; there were nasty cuts and blood was everywhere. Pinksy apparated to St. Mungo's with the young Mistress cause she didn't know what else to do," Pinksy said and fiddled with her fingers.

"Alright, Ronald Weasley will you please tell us your side of the story," the Head Wizengamot said.

Ron looked pissed off and glared at Hermione before he spoke. "Yeah, well, you see I am a respectable man and, a respectable man wouldn't do something like that for any reason. I was happily married to my wife, Hermione. We had a sweet little girl named Rose. Everything was picture perfect, until my stupid wife had to take it all away from me. I just had a few drinks that was all and saw the article questioning my daughter's paternity. Would you not flip out, as well?"

"Why would you try to kill your daughter for seeing a newspaper article? Why not ask your wife what she thought about it?" Rose's lawyer said.

"What would you think the chance of my wife telling me the truth would be? My wife is a liar and, how would I know if she was lying or not? I was drunk of my arse and the stupid little bitch was annoying the hell out of me. I had to take matters into my own hands," Ron said.

Hermione let out a strangled gasp. She couldn't believe how his love for Rose was extinguished already. How could someone hold a grudge on a little girl that they loved so much? She was also mad that he had called her a liar. Yes, she did lie technically but, was it really lying if he had never asked if Rose was really his in the first place? She had never blatantly lied about anything else. Ginny put an arm on her shoulder and Harry squeezed her hand tighter. How had she gotten so lucky to have friends like them?

O.o.O

"What did you do, Daddy?" Rose asked innocently, scooting closer to Draco.

Draco hesitated. Rose's big silver eyes stared at him expectantly. "I- Well, when I was younger I used to be a very mean person. I was never happy so, I made the rest of the kids miserable. When I started growing up I made some really bad choices and a lot of mistakes. I hurt a lot of people, Rose."

"Did you hurt Mummy? Is that why you didn't know about me?" Rose asked. She nuzzled his chest.

"Rose… Yes, I suppose I did hurt her and she didn't trust me enough," Draco said and hugged Rose tight to him.

"Are you sorry?"

"Of course I'm sorry, Rose. If I could go back in time and change the way I acted, I would. But, I can't," Draco said.

Rose nodded understanding. "Do you think you and Mummy will start being nice to each other?"

"I don't know. Let's not talk about that right now, ok?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "Ok."

"How about we go back to the party? We have been in here for a long time and, maybe cake is ready."

Draco held Rose's hand as they exited the bathroom. Everyone's eyes were on them as they walked back to the table and sat down. Draco helped Rose onto her chair in between Narcissa and him.

"Here, Rose. You can have my cake; I saved it just for you. We don't want to make a bigger scene than we already are," Narcissa said. She passed the piece of the pink birthday cake towards Rose who started eating it greedily.

O.o.O

The party was going to end soon so, the Malfoys got ready to leave. Draco transfigured Rose's party dress into black leggings and an emerald green North Face jacket so, she would be more comfortable. As they were about to Apparate, a very angry looking Blaise Zabini grabbed Draco by his shirt collar.

"Malfoy, so you think you could ignore everyone and, just waltz out of here still ignoring everyone? We were supposed to be best mates! Why didn't you tell me you were lounging around with Granger?" Blaise shouted angrily. Rose clutched Draco's leg nervously.

"Stop, Blaise. You are scaring my daughter," Draco said patting Rose's head affectionately.

"I can't believe it! You aren't even denying it! I covered for you in the Daily Prophet!" Blaise shouted.

"What's to deny? If you must know Hermione is the mother of my daughter. How you found out is beyond me but, if you don't mind, could you stop yelling? You are making a scene," Draco said looking around. A few curious eyes were on him and Blaise. Blaise looked like he was going to explode.

"Just so you know, I couldn't have told you anyways. I only found out about her a few weeks ago. You know how I found out for real? I was called by St. Mungo's and, she was nearly dead. These past few weeks have been the best and worst for me. Hermione has been fighting to keep me out of her life until now," Draco whispered fiercely.

"Oh, frickin' Merlin I'm sorry. I was being stupid. That's why you wanted to know Hermione's address,"

"Yes, that was one reason. Now if you will excuse us," Draco said and Apparated with Rose. Narcissa followed behind.

Draco was in a very bad mood when they got home. He angrily walked into his bedroom and threw some of his stuff, to blow off steam. Everything had to be so hard for him. All his life, he wished things would get easier but, things only got harder for him throughout the years. He decided to take a steaming hot shower to calm his troubled mind.

When he got out of the shower he put on some black silk boxers and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He stared at himself and put his hands on his head, thinking of how terrible of a person he was. After some moments, he exited the bathroom and sat on his bed.

"Boo!" Rose said and her head popped up out of the covers. Draco jumped.

"I scared you!" Rose sang and giggled. Draco looked amused and a little embarrassed he would be scared of a four year old jumping out of the bed covers.

"Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!" Rose shouted jumping on the bed. Her platinum curls bounced up and down crazily. "I really scared you!"

"Ok, that's enough Rose. It's not funny anymore," Draco said irritated. She kept jumping on the bed, giggling, and saying "scaredy cat," not listening to her father at all.

"Rose, seriously, stop!" Draco shouted. Rose stopped jumping and, her lip started trembling.

"Rose, don't cry. I'm sorry, ok? Come here," He said in a soothing voice. Rose stuck out her tongue at him and edged away.

He grabbed her and started tickling her. She shrieked with laughter. "Stop!" she giggled. He stopped and caressed her cheek.

"Daddy?" Rose asked looking at him oddly.

"What, Rose?" Draco said.

"What's that?" She said and crawled into his lap. She was pointing to the bottom of his arm.

Draco turned over his arm and, shivered when she touched it. It was the Dark Mark, which marked him as a Death Eater. He had almost forgotten it was there, until she pointed it out.

He remembered the day it was forced upon him. It was worse than being branded with a hot iron. Pain blinded him as he struggled not to pass out. He could hear laughter as he staggered backwards, nearly falling over. He remembered thinking that getting Crucioed was less painful than that.

"Daddy? Why did you get a tattoo? Mummy says boys with tattoos are weirdos. I don't think you are a weirdo though," Rose said. Draco shook his head coming out of the memory of the worst day of his life.

"Well, I didn't want to get a tattoo but, a bad man forced me to get it. I think I was much worse than a weirdo when I first got it,"

"I don't think you were a bad person, Daddy. I think you are nice," she said and hugged him and yawned.

"I think it's time for you to go to bed," Draco said getting up off the bed, carrying her.

He walked to her bedroom (the room next door) and tucked her into the bed, pulling the covers up to her neck. He kissed the top of her head and, turned around to leave the room.

"Daddy, do you think that maybe Mummy will want us to be a family someday? Then, she can see my room and we can live here together," she said as he started to leave.

O.o.O

"So, you decided to try to kill your daughter because she was annoying you?" Rose's lawyer pressed.

"Well, let's make everything clear, Rose is not my daughter and, she never was. She's probably out with her real father buying everything in England. But, on that note yes, I wanted her gone. I never meant to kill or harm her. I don't think I was right in the head from consuming all that Firewhiskey. Honestly, I didn't think hitting her once would turn into something like that," Ron said trying to make it seem like he wasn't in his right mind.

"What are you saying? Rose is not your daughter?" someone from the crowd called out.

"Order in the court! If any audience member speaks out again they will be escorted out," the judge said, hitting his hammer on the desk. "Let the court take a recess break and let the jury decide. Please pass up the evidence of Rose Weasley's abuse."

Rose's lawyer gave a packet to the Head Wizengamot filled with pictures of Rose from the day Ron abused her.

The people filed out of the court room and bombarded Harry and Hermione with questions about Rose. They went into a private room with their families to wait until the verdict was reached to get away from the crowd.

"Harry what the hell am I going to do?" Hermione shouted and paced around the room. "The whole world is going to know the truth about Rose in a matter of hours, if even that!"

"Calm down, Mione. It's not like he said who her father was. Besides, who cares if Malfoy is her father? With this stunt, everyone is going to hate Ron when they find out what he was put on trial for. They aren't going to feel sorry that you didn't tell him," Harry said trying to reassure her. He personally thought it would be better if the world never found out who Rose's real father was.

"Mione, don't worry. Everything will turn out ok in the end; it always does. Just be happy that Rose is safe and Draco loves her. Maybe, you can start over and, do the things you wanted before marrying Ron. I know you rushed into the marriage, putting everyone before yourself," Ginny said.

"Gin, how can you possibly be ok with everything that has happened? Ron is your brother! You should hate me!" Hermione exclaimed and continued to pace.

"Would you hate me if I were in your situation?" Ginny asked. Hermione shook her head. "We have been friends for over ten years. I don't care if Ron is my brother. I have always thought he was an idiot anyways,"

"Oh Gin… Harry… I just don't know what to do!" Hermione said, sat down dramatically on a chair and covered her face with her hands.

They remained quiet for the rest of the court recess, until they were called back into the courtroom.

Hermione's stomach felt as if it was going up her throat. Harry and Ginny were both squeezing her hands. She nearly jumped out of her seat when the judge spoke:

"Everyone please be seated to hear the verdict! The Head Wizengamot judge said. "The jury has come to the conclusion that Ronald Bilius Weasley will be sent to St. Mungo's for treatment Monday through Friday and, will be sent to Azkaban on the weekends."