Hermione stood there looking shocked and pale. There were so many different scenarios playing though her head at what could happen to Rose. She was an emotional wreck as it was, and she didn't know how to respond to what Harry told her. She couldn't help but wonder if her recurring nightmare was a vision of the future. She prayed to Merlin that she was no Seer and it wasn't real.
"Hermione? Please, say something. We will bring her back alive if it's the last thing I do!" Harry said patting her shoulder. She looked at him with wide brown eyes full of different emotions. She still remained silent, as he rubbed slow circles on her back.
"I… I … I don't know what to say right now, Harry. I don't… I can't even think right now. My body is literally numb. I do not know whether to cry or to be angry or hopeful. Everything is going haywire. I just can't do this anymore Harry. I can't live like this anymore- I can't wait any longer because the longer we wait the greater the chances that Ron will get tired of her and kill her. Harry, you know as well as any parent knows that you live for your children. When your child isn't living what can you live for; what are you supposed to live for? How does anyone survive the death of their child, Harry? I… I don't… th-think I could, and people have to live like that every day for the rest of their lives, wondering if they would have made sure that they would drive their child to school, or locked the front door, or g-got h-home fr-from their d-date five minutes earlier if their child would still be alive…" Hermione said and started sobbing on Harry's shoulder. He held her close and stroked her hair in a brotherly sort of way.
"Rose is still alive, Mione, so stop talking about her like she is gone already. I will assemble the Aurors right now if you want, and we will go over all possible tactics and safety precautions. We should be ready to get Rose by tomorrow morning. If we are lucky we can catch Ron sleeping and put the Full Body Bind spell on him before he can even put up a fight," Harry said as Hermione stopped hugging him. Hermione admired that Harry never gave up hope for anything. That was a trait that she always admired about him from the time when he rescued her from the troll in the girl's bathroom in first year. She wished she had that optimistic sense of thinking all the time like she did back before the Second Wizarding War, but things had changed- drastically- and she was not the same Hermione as she was back in Hogwarts. She wasn't even the same Hermione who called Ronald Weasley her husband.
"I don't understand how things got this bad, Harry. If Ron would have acted like a civilized person and just accepted that he did the wrong thing by hurting Rose, he most likely would have gotten a milder sentence. He would still be Rosie's Daddy and everything would have worked out if he got treatment at St. Mungo's for his alcohol addiction… But, despite being happy with Ron, I'm glad it didn't end up working out. I never truly loved Ron- well that's not right, I did love him just… not like I love Draco now. With Ron… everything was about him, but with Draco, it's about us. I just… I don't know how to explain it. It just feels…" Hermione said.
"Right…" Harry said finishing her sentence. "You don't have to explain your relationship with Draco to me, Hermione. You are allowed to love anyone you want. Don't think for a second that you need my permission to love someone, because even if you happened to marry dimwitted Goyle, you would still be my best friend- even if I couldn't stand to be in the same room with him. Besides, Malfoy seems to be a good guy; he loves Rose with all of his heart, and he has treated you well. That is enough for me… to know that you are happy and cared for," Harry said to Hermione, who flung her arms around him and wrapped him into a tight bear hug, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "You may not be my sister in blood, but you will always be my sister in my heart."
"Oh, Harry, what in Merlin's name would I do without you?"
"You would still be the same smart, strong, bookworm who is capable of anything if she puts her mind to it," Harry said to Hermione. "That and it would suck for Rose and any of her future siblings because both you and Draco are only children, so they wouldn't have any cousins to play with or any aunts and uncles to spoil them."
"Who said anything about Rose getting more siblings? Getting Rose back home safe and sound is definitely my main priority right now, and Draco and I are just going out, as those Muggle teenagers would say," Hermione said rolling her eyes at him.
"Speaking of Draco, you should probably go home to tell him we are getting Rose back tomorrow morning. Be here to meet us at 6:00 a.m. I swear, Hermione, my team of Aurors are the best in England. We will figure out a plan!" Harry said, more to reassure himself that Rose would be brought home safely than Hermione. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if the only time he let Hermione Granger down was the time when he failed to bring her daughter home alive. (Ok well maybe not the first time because he assumed that he let her down every time he waited until the last minute to finish his homework and essays. To any normal person, who wasn't totally obsessed in their schoolwork, it would be the first time he would let them down.)
O.o.O
Hermione went to the Manor and told Draco and his parents the Aurors were going into the place where Rose was held hostage. Draco picked Hermione up and twirled her around in a circle; when he put her down he kissed her gently and passionately. He was so excited that Rose was going to come back home to them, and it made Hermione happy that he absolutely loved his daughter.
Hermione had tried to go to bed that night, but she couldn't- even with Draco there with her. She kept thinking about what would happen the next morning. Harry had given her some hope, so she wasn't thinking the worst anymore, but she still didn't think the situation would have the picture perfect ending she hoped it would have. In a perfect world this wouldn't have happened in the first place- at least not to an innocent child that had no influence of what her mother had done to keep her paternity a secret. It wasn't a picture perfect world, so there was no use in wondering 'what if.' Hermione knew that better than anyone, yet she still couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if things would have turned out differently- if she would have acted like a true Gryffindor and just told Draco about Rose.
Luckily her thoughts got the best of her, and she drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
O.o.O
The next morning Hermione was woken up by someone nudging her gently. She swatted the person's hand away and groaned. It was the first night that she hadn't had the dream about Rose dying in over a week. Maybe it was a sign- or at least she hoped it was. Thinking of Rose, she abruptly sat up and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was 5:29, and she mentally scolded herself for not setting an alarm. There was no way she would be able to get ready in thirty one minutes.
Draco was sitting at the foot of the bed, already ready, with his hair nicely combed back.
"Why didn't you wake me up when you got up?" Hermione nearly yelled. She ran out of bed and magically combed her hair and magically picked out an outfit.
"I thought that you needed some sleep, Mione. You haven't had a proper night's sleep in weeks and I thought you might need some time to recuperate yourself. I had the house elves prepare your breakfast already," Draco said and smiled.
"Not on the day where Rose is coming back home to us, Draco," Hermione scolded him, and put her clothes on while she was going to walk out the door, leaving a trail of pajamas to the door. Draco made the clothes go into the laundry chute so the house elves would clean them later, and followed her down to the kitchen.
Hermione shoveled the eggs and bacon into her mouth, barely tasting any of it. Hermione looked at the clock and grabbed Draco's arm before Apparating to Harry's office, with a piece of toast in her other hand.
When they got to the office, the whole Auror staff was going through different plans and ideas that had been formed the previous night. Draco went up to talk to Blaise Zabini and Hermione went to go find Harry. All she could do was nod at Harry because both of them had no idea what to say to each other. Both were high on adrenaline, and both were scared that they would fail at bringing Rose home safely.
"It's time," Harry said loudly, so the entire room could hear him. The room became silent until the Aurors started Apparating to the sewer hole in which Rose was kept, and the familiar crack noise sounded like fireworks exploding.
Soon only Harry, Hermione, and Draco were left in the room together. They stared at each other awkwardly for a second before Hermione Apparated away, leaving the boys. Harry and Draco looked at each other and Apparated at the same time.
By the time Harry, Hermione, and Draco had gotten to the sewer hole, all of the Aurors had already gotten through the tunnels to pursue the chase of Ronald Weasley.
"What do we do now, Harry?" Hermione asked quietly. She felt like she was going to throw up, and the rushed breakfast didn't help anything.
Harry looked at her and sighed. "The only thing there is to do is to wait here, I guess, and just hope for the best. The Healers should be arriving any second now; just in case."
"After everything we have been through, I thought you would at least have the decency to know what you are doing, Potter," Draco said rolling his eyes. Harry chose to ignore him, because Draco was technically right. The only problem was to do that, he would need a few weeks' worth of time, and that was something Harry didn't have to work with. Unfortunately, he had to use guess and check tactics and pray to Merlin that Rose would be ok.
The three of them sat down, and Hermione started picking the grass and tying the blades into knots. It was just something to pass the time, and it was a way for her brain to be focusing something other than wondering if her daughter was going to live or not. Draco sat with a stone, emotionless face, remaining still. Harry hummed to himself, and Draco was trying his hardest not to punch him in the face.
It seemed like they were sitting there for hours, even though it had only been less than twenty minutes. The three of them were starting to get restless with anticipation.
O.o.O
Down in the sewer, Blaise Zabini was the first person to spot Ron Weasley in the tunnels. He sent a signal, and soon all the Aurors surrounded all the possible escape routes for Ron, except for the one that led directly to the place in front of where Harry, Hermione, and Draco were sitting.
Very quietly, Blaise crept into the area where Ron was. Ron was holding a struggling Rose Malfoy, trying to force her to eat some type of artificial meat product that made him gag just thinking about what it tasted like. Rose whined and screamed, but Ron was getting fed up with her. Blaise knew he had to intervene before something bad happened. He saw Ron's wand hanging out of his pants' back pocket, and knew he had to retrieve it.
"Accio Ronald Weasley's wand!" Blaise shouted and Ron's wand flew into his hand, causing Ron to jump in shock. Once he realized what was going on, he hit Rose on the head, causing her to pass out, and put a knife up to her neck.
"If you or anyone else does any funny business I will kill her," Ron said and laughed menacingly at Blaise and the Aurors surrounding him. "You will let me go up that tunnel and won't pursue me, or I will kill her."
Ron was pointing to the tunnel that they hadn't guarded; the one that led straight up to Harry. Blaise prayed that they would notice him come out of the tunnel before he actually got away. "Alright, Weasley. Everyone let him go."
"Oh, I know what you are going to do, Zabini. You are going to hex me when I turn around to walk out the tunnel. Well, I have already thought of that. If you try to hex me you might hit Rose," Ron said thinking he had gotten everything taken care of. He started walking backwards down the tunnel. Blaise tried not to laugh, knowing that Harry would definitely notice him walking backwards.
When Ron finally made it to the back of the tunnel he was instantly hit by Hermione's Full Body Bind jinx, and fell onto his back with a thud. The Healers rushed up to Ron and gently lifted the unconscious Rose onto a medical stretcher, and started to perform healing spells.
Hermione had no time to process what was happening, but a female Healer came up to her and told her that Rose only had a minor concussion. Rose was going to be absolutely fine. Tears of happiness poured down Hermione's eyes and she hugged the healer out of gratitude.
Draco kissed Hermione and hugged her, knowing that Rose was going to be fine. Together they walked up to see Rose on the stretcher, sleeping from all the healing spells. They both caressed their daughter's cheek, knowing that everything was going to be ok.
For the first time in Hermione's life she was never gladder to see Ron get carted out by the Aurors rumored to get the Dementor's Kiss.
O.o.O
A few months later it was time for the big Malfoy Hogwarts Reunion Pool Party. Everyone was invited, instead of just the people who were in Slytherin and their family members who could have been in different houses.
Hermione was in the pool wearing a red halter neck swimsuit with a lion on the middle of it and red bottoms. She didn't want to be overly Gryffindor; just enough so the swim suit wouldn't look cheesy.
Rose wore a little bikini that was half red and half green with a snake on the red side and a lion on the green side and a bathing suit skirt that's ruffles alternated between red and green. Red and green sequins were all over it. She had one green arm floaty and one red floaty on her arm.
Draco watched Rose jump into the pool, giggling as she splashed Hermione in the face. Hermione wiped the water off of her eyes and smiled at Rose before catching Draco's eye.
If someone would have told Draco that he had a daughter with Hermione Granger and would fall utterly in love with her, he would have thought they were completely off their rocker. Now he couldn't imagine what life would be like without his two perfect girls.
O.o.The End.o.O
I think this was a good place to end. I'm sorry it took so long to update, but here it is. In your review tell me if you think I should do an epilogue or not. Also read my Scorpius/Lily story Not Without My Daughter. First two chapters are the prologue; it's not going to be as choppy.