The Harry Potter universe and its characters are the sole property of J. K. Rowling. By using them below, I am in no way claiming them as my own.

Draco bit his tongue until he was safely in the guest room upstairs. The moment Hermione closed the door behind her, he flipped.

'What in the HELL is going on here!?' He demanded, turning to face her. 'You slept with my father?'

'Oh come on,' Hermione frowned and folded her arms. 'You know that wasn't me.' He began to pace in front of her, arms moving wildly as he tried to come to terms with this new reality.

'Something happened which made you do it. You'd do it again if it happened to you... again.'

'You're not making any sense.' She sighed and moved past him to the window, staring out at the countryside. At least that hadn't changed, proving that their attempt to save Harry hadn't been in vain. Lord Voldemort was defeated. It was likely the Battle had been exactly as in her own past, but what happened afterwards... she couldn't help but feel curious. Turning away from the view, she pouted at Draco. 'I need you to think about what we might have changed in the past. I'll talk to your father and try and figure out how this happened.'

Determined, Hermione walked past him to leave the room. Draco grabbed her arm to stop her, pulling her back to face him.

'He's a dangerous man, Hermione.' He pulled her closer, until her forehead rested against his. 'He might look all sweet and charming, but he's a monster. Don't forget it.'

She gave him a quick kiss and pulled away, smiling at his concern. 'I'll be fine, Draco. I've dealt with worse than your father before.'

Hermione paused at the threshold of the study. Lucius was sat in a leather armchair by the fire, engrossed in his newspaper. She took a step forwards, her bare feet sinking into an emerald shag rug. Surprised, she glanced down. When did I lose my shoes?

'Hermione,' Lucius spoke, looking up from the paper. Her eyes darted up to his.

'Where's Elspeth?' She had hoped to avoid a one-to-one session with her now-husband, but her daughter was nowhere to be seen.

'I had her put-down for her afternoon nap. Why don't you come in?' Lucius did a quick wrist-flick with his wand, causing the door to shut behind her. Hermione jumped at the noise, then tentatively moved over to the desk. She wanted to maintain a reasonable distance from him, but he had other ideas. He smiled, folding the newspaper away.

'You've been gone too long,' he said, his voice sultry as he strode towards her. Panicked, Hermione tried to find a way to escape his intentions, but he was too fast. An arm reached past her to lean on the desk, pinning her to the stone edge. The rough material of his robes brushed her right arm through the lace and she gulped at the proximity. His other hand caressed her left arm, fingers trailing hopefully against her skin. 'Why must you always go on such long business trips?' He asked, leaning forward. 'I'm so... happy, to see you again.' His body pressed against her right side, and she could feel how happy he was.

'Um...'

'Is this a new dress?' He moved his head closer to hers, the blonde hair brushing her shoulder. 'I like it.' Lucius leant forward to kiss her.

'Darling,' Hermione quickly ducked from his grasp, moving away from the desk and over to the fire. She placed herself behind the back of the armchair, using it as a kind of barrier against his advances. Lucius' hand clasped the air where she had been, disappointed.

'Are we playing a game?' He turned to her, intrigued.

'Why don't we take things a little slow?' She asked, trying to sound seductive as she patted the armchair suggestively. 'Why don't you have a drink, and tell me what you've been up to whilst I've been gone? I'll pour you a firewhiskey.'

Lucius was unsure of his wife's intentions, but acquiesced at the thought of a drink. He sat down in the armchair, flouncing his cloak out behind him. Hermione moved away from the chair slowly, her fingers running across the leather back. She found the alcohol in the bottom desk drawer, where Draco had kept it in his time. Eager, Lucius bewitched a tumbler from the other side of the room to fly across to the desk. He watched her from the chair as she poured out a generous measure, then presented it to him. She sat down opposite on the rug, despite his attempts to coax her onto his lap.

'Did Elspeth behave, while I was gone?' Hermione asked, straightening out the skirt of her dress against the floor.

'Of course.' He sipped his drink slowly. 'Why are you back early?'

'I missed you,' she quickly replied, hoping it would be excuse enough.

'You're thinking about quitting your job.'

'Would you like that?' She leant forward, resting on her hands. He smirked, the expression tainted with more cruelty than his son's, and finished his drink. Before he could speak, she had waved her wand and caused the tumbler to refill. The dark amber liquid seemed to glow in the firelight, casting strange shadows against Lucius' skin. Hermione tipped her face downwards and looked up at him, her fingers trailing across the shag rug. His eyes followed the movement hungrily. 'Do you remember when we met, darling?'

Lucius' eyes moved to the firewhiskey and he smiled. 'Of all the bars in all the towns, in all the world, I walked into yours.'

This was a surprise to Hermione. Journalism had saved her, in a manner, from the trauma of the battle. Yet in this reality, she hadn't gotten an internship at the Daily Prophet. Or had she? Maybe she was simply a patron at whatever bar he was referring to. Barwork wouldn't lead to the long business trips he hated her taking.

'Your dancing was hypnotic...'

No.

'I couldn't keep my eyes from you. You had the whole bar in rapture.'

No bloody way.

'When you got the snake out, the symbol of the Malfoy crest, I knew.' His finished the drink and moved his eyes up to her, the expression distant as her remembered her dancing days at The Wizard's Broom. 'I knew you were mine.' He chucked the glass into the flames and pushed himself up from the armchair. Startled, Hermione leant back away from him. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her upwards. Her feet tried to grasp for purchase at the floor but his grip tightened.

'I raised you up from the ashes of a previous life, Hermione, just you remember that.'

He released his grip, causing her to tumble back to the floor in a heap.