Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine.

Chapter 11 An Interesting Proposal

"You know," Kat said as she met Draco at the Manor for supper. Krum, who was currently playing Quidditch in Paris, agreed to meet with them at the end of the month. Thankfully, he knew he was adopted. "I was planning on sleeping with you the other day."

Draco tried not to smile as he walked her to the dining room. "I think the whole world knew because of that small amount of fabric you called a dress."

Kat pretended to be offended and pouted. "Hey! Less fabric means less fabric for you to rip off, Veela Boy."

Draco shrugged. "And here I was going to offer to reschedule. Pity."

"What?!" Kat squeaked.

Narcissa blinked as a house elf poured her some wine. "Is something wrong, Katherine?"

"No, no." Kat hastily sat down. Draco was laughing at her as he sat across from her. She'd just have to get back at him now, wouldn't she? "Draco just asked me to sleep over."

Draco turned bright red. "N-no. I didn't!"

Narcissa shifted uncomfortably in her seat while Kat smiled evilly at Draco. She cleared her throat. "Well, you're both adults… And I'm sure you don't want Edward disturbing you. Lucius and I didn't wait until marriage. Actually we didn't even wait until—"

"Mum!" Draco yelled before she could finish. He was getting so red that Kat wondered if he was starting to get a headache. It was getting too hard not to hold in her laughter.

"Cissa, the girl is messing with you and our poor son." Lucius kept his eyes on his plate, equally mortified as Draco.

"Oh." Narcissa stopped her nervous babble. "Remus did say you had a… peculiar sense of humor."

Kat was sure Remus said something like 'terrible' or 'horrific' instead of peculiar. Maybe she took it too far. Oh well… "Sorry, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Not to worry, dearest. But you are sleeping over, aren't you? I would like you to live here in the future." Narcissa sounded so genuine that Kat almost believed her. She wanted Draco and her grandchildren to live at the Manor in the future. That's what she really meant. Kat was sure of it.

"Erhm…" Kat squirmed in her seat while it was Draco's turn to smile evilly at her. He must have forgotten that she was nervous about being here alone for long. Lucius would never carry out the threat he made Christmas Eve though. Draco wouldn't let him. "I don't know…"

Narcissa frowned but shrugged as she started cutting up her steak. "Alright. But there's also a guest house on the property, if you'd feel more comfortable there. I'm sure you and Draco would want to move in together soon."

"It's been less than six months, Cissa." Lucius laughed awkwardly. "Leave them be."

"No." Kat pounded her fist on the table. The Malfoys jumped, not used to such horrible table manners. She wasn't going to let a fear of Lucius hold her back, even if it wasn't exactly irrational. "I-I'll stay tonight."

Once a storm started brewing, Kat started regretting agreeing to sleep over. She would have gone home, but she didn't want Draco's parents to know she was afraid. They must think enough about her already.

Draco's room was fine. There was an adjoining bathroom, and if she kept the curtains closed and the door shut, she could pretend she was in a hotel. If only she had a better imagination.

"Are you scared of storms?" Draco asked after she jumped because of the thunder for the third time.

"No." Kat slid into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. "Just sadistic Death Eaters."

Draco sat on the bed and started at his unbuttoned shirt cuffs. "Does my Mark bother you? I've tried to remove it, but Severus couldn't even brew something to get it off. And I don't want him to keep experimenting on himself."

Kat shook her head. She hadn't really thought about it, surprisingly. "It's more the memories." With a tired sigh, she threw off the covers. "C'mon. I want to go there… The room where Bellatrix…"

"Are you sure?" Draco sounded unsure of himself, but he started buttoning up shirt again anyway. Kat nodded, so he led the way.

Kat didn't know what to expect. Bellatrix wouldn't be there, certainly, and neither would Hermione. However she could still hear her friend's screams as if it were yesterday. She doubted she would ever forget.

The Manor was cold. Her bare feet felt like they were padding against ice instead of stone. Draco's floors were wood, so they weren't as bad as they halls. It still seemed dark to her even though candles magically lit when they walked by. During the day, she felt fine. Awkward and nervous around Draco's parents, but not like this. With every step she took, she felt more convinced that something bad was going to happen.

Draco didn't say anything as they walked, although he grimaced when she dug her nails into his arm. He looked like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if it would help. Kat didn't think she'd really listen anyway. Draco stopped just before the stairs.

"We don't go in the dungeons anymore. Father was thinking about filling it with cement." He removed her hand from his arm and put it in his own. "We just don't want to go down there."

"Make the house elves do it." Kat stayed rooted on the spot. "I don't want to live here, but I know it's important to you."

"Not that important," Draco mumbled, but she knew he was lying. She wondered how many generations of Malfoys lived here. Surely they wouldn't be the only ones to live on their own, at least for a little while.

Draco started walking again, and Kat didn't want to be alone in the dark, so she let him lead her. Even if she didn't want to live here, she had to get over this. She planned on staying in the room until the uneasiness passed, like Draco made her do in the ballroom when Narcissa took Teddy out of her sight.

But the large sitting room by the gardens behind the house looked nothing like she remembered. Only the walls remained the same. Dark pink carpets covered the stone, and there were several bookshelves and reading chairs. The fireplace roared to life as they walked in, showing off red vases on end tables with gold handles.

"You did this for Hermione." Kat looked up to see that the huge ceiling was even gone, replaced by a lower one.

"Mother paints in the new room upstairs." Draco looked out the window and watched at the storm for a moment. "And yes. My parents were freaking out, thinking I was actually going to not mate with her and die. I was afraid, but I wasn't going to let myself die."

Kat sat in a chair in the corner and tried to picture herself in here. The place she pictured them walking into, the place that would never erase itself from her mind, was totally gone in the real world. Draco waited for her to say something. She rested her chin in her hands before speaking. "I like it. It's a sweet old lady's room. Prefect for Hermione"

Draco sighed in relief, sounding like he was holding his breath. "I'll be sure to let her know your thoughts… I thought you'd have a panic attack or something."

"I haven't had a full blown one since Dudley nearly died at the hospital," Kat muttered, but she didn't want to think about Dudley right now, not until she was sure Umbridge wasn't going to win her lawsuit. "Next full moon, if Teddy sleeps here, can he sleep in our bed?"

Draco raised his eyebrows at 'our bed' but smiled. "Of course."

"I simply do not know vhat is right," Viktor explained to Hermione as they walked through the park in London. When she told him that she studied law, he seemed to think she was already a full-fledged lawyer. She tried to explain it to him, but he insisted that she was the smartest lawyer in London even though she didn't have a license and still had three years of school left.

Hermione shoved her near frozen hands in her pockets. "I'm biased. I don't want Draco to go to jail."

"Neither do I." Viktor chuckled at her shocked look. "He was a little boy last I saw him. And he killed bad man. Besides, Umbridge does not vant justice. She vants the money. I do not vant to help her."

"You don't have to," Hermione offered. "You don't even have to change your name. The goblins would just give you the money."

"Money I do not need or vant." Viktor glanced at a group of children playing tag. "I vould use it to expand my charity to England."

Hermione nodded. Viktor ran a charity that taught local witches and wizards how to fly and play Quidditch. It also allowed young muggleborns to play in hopes of allowing them to get used to the wizarding world and breaking some of the animosity certain purebloods still felt. "You could do that. The inheritance laws here are astonishingly old fashioned."

"But then the old woman vould have nothing." Viktor scowled. Hermione noticed that he didn't call Umbridge his great grandmother but said nothing. She wasn't going to push him to do anything he was uncomfortable with. "Vhat should I do, Hermione? You always know vhat to do."

Let her starve, Hermione thought darkly but couldn't bring herself to say it. It wouldn't solve anything, and Viktor would just think she was callously cruel. Umbridge was at their mercy, so she needed to earn what she wanted from them. "I have an idea."

Umbridge must have figured out that there was nothing she could do, so she agreed to meet with them at the end of the first week of March. Kat knew Draco was nervous, so she went with him to the meeting. Lucius was acting as his lawyer, and despite her protests, Hermione was Krum's. Kat was surprised to see Fudge at Umbridge's side. The toad had no one else, but she couldn't see Fudge doing something that could make him look bad… well, worse than he already did. They must really be good friends.

They were in a conference room at the Ministry that Kingsley provided them with. Draco wasn't too happy when she slipped the Minister a galleon as a joke bribe, but he didn't say anything, not even when Kingsley jokingly asked for another so he could go out to lunch. He must really be scared.

Umbridge stared at Krum like she had never seen him before. Kat smiled to herself. If Draco wasn't such a wreck, she would whisper to him, She must be wondering how her toad genes lead to a giant bear being born. As they sat at a long, round table, she couldn't wait to get this over with.

"May I see a copy of the genetic test results?" Fudge held out his hand to Hermione, not daring to look at Lucius, which surprised Kat. They used to be friendly, especially when Lucius had pockets full of gold. They both had equally destroyed reputations as well. Hermione nodded, already looking like a serious lawyer, and handed him the parchment.

"It was done by a third party, as you can see," Hermione said calmly. "St. Mungo's has close ties with the Ministry. We had the test done by an independent potions lab in Italy."

Fudge's brow furrowed as he checked the test, searching for any sign of a mistake. "It doesn't matter. He is not legally an Umbridge. He doesn't have a claim."

"Yes…" Hermione started sifting through her papers. "So that means the money and the manor will go to… Richard Umbridge of Wales? Dolores can either declare Viktor heir or she'll have to move out of her home by July. Draco is not settling. We simply have an alternative proposal to prevent us from taking this to court."

"But we will take this to court if necessary," Lucius said coldly.

"You look just like my grandfather," Umbridge whispered, speaking for the first time. Krum frowned but didn't look away. "He would not stoop to—"

"Offering to help someone?" Krum asked sarcastically, making Kat feel oddly proud of him. "I vill open a stadium in London. You vill keep it running. You vill handle the paperwork, make sure the vorkers get paid, and the volunteers are properly trained. Or you vill not keep your home. You vill get monthly allowance for your work."

"And you won't win the lawsuit," Hermione pressed. "Draco acted in self-defense—"

"According to her!" Umbridge spat, showing her true colors. She pointed at Kat. "She resents the fact that I tried to uphold order at Hogwarts during the War!"

"Is that what you called it?" Kat shot out of her seat but slowly sat down when Draco tugged at her sleeve. "Do you know how long it took me to get that scar off my hand? You should be in prison! You—"

"Katherine," Draco whispered in her ear, making her freeze. Embarrassed, she took a deep breath and looked at her hands. She shouldn't have done that. This was about Draco and Krum, not her.

Lucius broke the awkward silence that followed. "I think the alternative, as Ms. Granger put it, is best. Nothing will change for Mrs. Umbridge except for the fact that she will have to work. Therefore, she will not lose anything she has claimed to have lost. She had no contact with her son. In fact, he seemed to have placed a restraining order against her in the early sixties. We understand her… grief, but the Ministry decided at the time of the incident that no crime was committed."

Fudge sighed. "We already can't find you a proper lawyer, Dolores."

Umbridge turned bright red. "You-you can't expect me to work with a bunch of snot nosed mudblood—"

"I do not," Krum snapped so loudly that Dolores jumped and quieted down. "But you vill be dedicating the rest of your life to their enjoyment. However, you vill have no contact. You vill work… behind the scenes." He glanced at Hermione to make sure he used the expression correctly. She nodded with a small, satisfied smile.

When Umbridge sagged in defeat, Kat knew it was over. They won.

Later that night, Kat was sitting on Draco's bed, watching him get dressed. His parents wanted to have a celebratory dinner, so he was putting on dress robes. She wondered why everything always had to be so formal and vaguely wondered if Lucius and Narcissa noticed that she only had one fancy dress that she felt was up to their standards. At least they had yet to say anything…

Meanwhile, Kat was trying to figure out how to apologize for her outburst in the conference room. She'd like to think she didn't care enough about Umbridge to react like that. With a sigh, she laid flat on her back and stared at the ceiling. Clearly, she was wrong.

"I'm sorry." Kat jumped when she realized that she and Draco said the same thing at the same time. She pushed herself up by her elbows and frowned. "What are you sorry for?"

Draco turned away from the mirror. His bowtie hung untied around his neck. "I was the leader of the Inquisitor Squad. What are you sorry for?"

"For almost jumping on a soap box in the middle of the meeting!" Kat yelled. That must be a Muggle expression because he only gave her a puzzled look. "You were all worried about being sued, and I tried to make it about 5th year."

"Oh… Well your hand was sliced open. Among other things." Draco turned back to the mirror to tie the black bowtie. "I didn't really care. I simply wanted to get out of there."

Kat groaned. Why'd he have to be so nice? Malfoys weren't supposed to be nice! "Well I don't care about you being leader of the Inquisitor Squad. As long as I can tell our kids that you were a dork." She laughed quietly. "Hey Jimmy! Daddy was a member of a squad!"

"And Mummy was the leader of an army, Scorpius," Draco muttered. "They wore funny hats and their knickers outside their trousers."

"We-we did not!" Kat scrambled out of bed and tried to brush the wrinkles out of her dress. "And what kind of name is Scorpius anyway?"

Draco gave her a blank look like it was obvious. "The name of our first son."

Kat snorted. "Yeah. Our first son after James Sirius and Remus Edward."

"Who names their kid James Sirius?"

"Who names their kid Scorpius?" Kat shot back, trying not to laugh. "There's a reason Ron laughed at you on the train first year!"

"Because he's an uncultured bumpkin!" Draco growled as Kat couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. Some things would never change.

As summer neared, Kat and Teddy took it upon themselves to find kids to play Quidditch for Krum's children's field. McGonagall, or the Scary Lady as Teddy called her, gave her a list of Muggleborns that she had already spoken to and were due to go to Hogwarts in September. They started off with a few games of football and explaining Quidditch to the Muggleborns. Teddy liked that he could teach the big kids the sport, and other kids who knew they were magical were excited to play in a stadium created by the famous Viktor Krum and be coached by the Girl-Who-Lived. Luckily, Kat barely saw Umbridge until the day before they were scheduled to open.

"Oh, hey." Kat tried to smile but couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know what to do and tried to strike up a conversation that would be short so she could escape with at least saying she tried. "How are the permits coming along?"

"Fine." Umbridge gave her that sickly sweet, condescending smile. "I had them completed back in April."

"Oh, cool." Kat shuffled her feet. "Well… I'll see you…" Hopefully never, she added in her head.

"He was my son." Umbridge looked her dead in the eye. "I did care about him."

Clearly not enough, Kat thought bitterly, but she was sure, in her own sick, twisted way, that Umbridge thought that trying to kill her son's wife and her unborn grandchild was a loving attempt at keeping her son from being a teenage parent. And of keeping her son from ruining their bloodline… Kat tried to be the bigger person and say, "I know."

Miranda smiled from her car as she watched Katherine rush over to her own vehicle before Dolores could try to talk to her. They were making it too easy for her to get revenge. Once she got her strength up, she'd be able to kill them both together.

The first game was completed a week later, with Teddy as the proud referee, and Narcissa invited everyone over to celebrate. To Kat's surprise, Lucius seemed more put out with having to sit near Sirius than Remus, but she soon found out it was because Sirius had a ton of embarrassing stories about Lucius to tell, like how he used to have house elves braid his hair.

And so the table was full of bickering. Teddy asking Severus why Sirius said that he slept hanging upside down, Ron asking Pansy the difference between spoons, and Hermione trying to tell Narcissa and Remus about law school in between all the yelling. Kat was loving every minute of it. She didn't want it to end. Maybe it could happen all the time…

"Draco?" Kat felt her heart jump to throat when he stopped talking to Theodore Nott and waited for her to say something. "Er…"

"Katherine?" He smiled at her, thinking she was teasing him. Meanwhile, Kat was freaking out. She was getting too caught up in the moment! She'll just ask him to pass the asparagus. No… She had some on her plate. She was having so much fun with everyone that she had barely touched her food. "Are you alright? You look like you're going to be sick."

Yes! Yes! That can be her excuse! Then she can go to bed and call herself stupid for the rest of the night. No… It wasn't stupid. Before she could stop herself, she burst out, "Will you marry me?"

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