A/N: This chapter is going to feature a POV from both Mila and Hermione! Not every chapter is going to have that, I feel like I should go ahead and let you know that now. There are a handful of moving parts in this story, and they all work together in the end.
I love the speculations! Only, I'm not going to answer any questions regarding Lucius or Astoria just yet because Hermione and Mila aren't aware of the Malfoy family dynamic aside from what they've seen in the Prophet or Witch Weekly. Mila, she just doesn't have the resources to look further into her father, and Hermione, well she had no desire to know any more about her ex.
Here's your first look at the Hermione/Ron dynamic and relationship. When I said this story is Ron bashing, I wasn't exaggerating.
More notes at the end.
Chapter 3: Ron Weasley
"Hullo? Earth to Mila?" Mila couldn't help but roll her eyes at her brother who was currently attempting to get her attention waving his hand holding a piece of toast in her face.
"Eat your brekkie." Mila snapped at her brother, earning an eye roll back at her as he made a show of stabbing a generous helping of scrambled eggs onto his fork and shoving it into his mouth. "Honestly, Milo. I know Ronald lives in our house, but surely you don't have to eat like him."
This earned a choked laugh from her brother, who had clearly swallowed his food right at her delivery of the line. While Mila was pounding her brother on the back, in an attempt to help him breath, Jack took that opportunity to stroll up to the twins.
"Morning you two. Bloody hell woman, trying to off him already? It's not even eight in the morning!" Jack said slipping into a seat next to Mila and forcing the fourth year, Ethan Nott, down the bench.
"Jack, surly there's some space over at your house table and you don't have to crowd ours." Mila said glancing over her shoulder to survey the Gryffindor table. The mess of red hair from all the Weasley spawns, along with a few others faces that Mila vaguely recognized from different functions her mother had drug her along to. "See there, Grant Finnigan has openings on both sides of him."
"And get myself blown up before charms? No, I don't think so. Speaking of, have either of you gotten your time tables? Neville just handed ours out, and I'm not looking forward to this year. Dad had me pick up care of magical creatures and mum made me take divination. Either of you in those?" Jack asked turning his attention back away from his house table and to his friends once again.
"Professor Longbottom, honestly Jack." Mila muttered at how casually he addressed their herbology professor.
"Mum is making us take arithmancy and ancient runes. Mila's been in a right state since she was wanting to take care of magical creatures too, but couldn't fit it in without giving up her only free period." Milo commented now that his coughs had subsided.
Slamming her hands on the table Mila turned her attention onto her brother who was smirking at her. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" She snapped at her brother. He was the only person who knew of Mila's secret obsession with dragons and dreams of becoming a dragon keeper.
It was after she first learned what her father's name was and who he was when she'd instantly recognized it. That was the start of her diving into learning all she could about dragons. If she couldn't be with her father, Mila had decided the next best thing would be to connect with his name's sake. And at five years old, with stars in her eyes, Mila had fallen in love with the magnificent beasts.
Her mother had never discouraged her love of learning and caring for creatures, but knowing that her fascination with dragons had originally stemmed from Mila wanting a connection with the father that had abandoned her, she had hidden this part of herself from everyone but Milo. And now apparently Jack Potter.
"Yeah? You think Parkinson will let you add it to your time table? All third years are in one class, so that'd give us another lesson together." Jack said, obviously not paying the twins much attention as he loaded a plate in front of himself.
"Ha, as if Professor Parkinson would do anything that would be helpful to me in anyway." Pansy Parkinson, their father's ex-girlfriend and mother's school yard bully, was their transfiguration teacher and head of house. With Milo looking almost exactly like their father and Mila look exactly like their mother, it hadn't been difficult for Parkinson to put the pieces of that puzzle together. Needless to say, the Slytherin head of house was not a big fan of the twins, especially Mila.
"Well, if you have the open period, she can't exactly stop you, now, can she?" Jack commented as he stabbed a sausage with his fork before shoving the majority of it in his mouth. Even having his mother's etiquette lessons down his throat since he could walk, hadn't kept Jack from being a disgusting teenager.
Mila shoved away her plate of toast and blueberries, having lost her appetite watching the two boys she was positioned between eating. Just as she was about to open her mouth to scold Jack on his poor table manners, Mila snapped her jaw shut and placed a sneer that resembled the ones from her father's younger years at Hogwarts.
The heir and Remy were walking past their part of the table quietly talking between each other. Both boys had been sorting into Slytherin house, making sure that Mila was never going to be able to escape the child that hadn't been abandoned. The daily reminder put her on edge more than watching Ron Weasley eat.
"I didn't realize that you could dress yourself without a house elf. Ten points to the heir." Mila quipped at the small blonde boy, causing him to raise his head away from Remy and lock eyes with her. Watching the same grey eyes that she shared looking back at her, made Mila's blood boil.
"Miss. Granger, I see that you have another family member joining our fine house." Mila couldn't help but grimace at the fake cheery voice that chimed behind her.
"Professor," Milo greeted the woman, pulling her attention away from Mila. "Are you here to deliver our time tables? We were just discussing adding on care of magical creatures if we were still able to since we did have a free period." He smoothed over quickly as her green eyes narrowed on her brother before a soft smile formed looking at him.
"Mr. Granger, you have one free period and I'm not sure that I could approve the two of you adding another class to your already full schedule." Suppressing an eye roll had never been more difficult for Mila than in that moment. The scores that Mila and Milo had been pulling in since their first year rivaled what their mother and father had been able to accomplish as the first and second in their own class.
Before the twins, no other group of students that had passed through Hogwarts had ever even come close to reaching the scores that had been set by Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy's academic rivalry, and their raven-haired, pug nose professor very well knew that. Mila took a deep breath through her nose before looking up at her transfiguration teacher.
"I could always ask for special permission from Headmistress McGonagall, she's still very fond of our mother and I'd hate to think how she'd respond to the idea of trying and prevent Milo and myself from reaching our full protentional as students." Mila commented fluttering her eye lashes in a mock innocence.
With a huff, Parkinson tapped her wand to both Mila and Milo's time tables, taking away both their free periods and adding in care of magical creatures and handing the parchment to both of them. "Mr. Potter, don't you have your own house table you should be eating at?" She snapped at the raven-haired boy, who had a mouth full of bacon and potato next her before storming off. Jack didn't even seem like he'd registered what had just been said or by who.
"Did you say something, Mila?" He asked causing Mila to let out a huff before pushing herself off the bench and walking out of the great hall. Looking down at her time table for the first time, she let out a groan as she saw her first class was Potions with Hufflepuff. Well, fucking hell. Of course, it wasn't that Mila disliked potions. That wasn't it at all, just the class reminded her of him just a bit more than she cared to admit and it was hard to forget about him when there were so many revisions to the text that were credited to him or his godfather, Severus Snape.
"MILA! HEY, WAIT UP!" Mila stopped turning around to look and see who was trying to follow her when she saw little Remy running to catch up with her.
"What do you want, Remy? I'm in a hurry." Mila said as she turned and kept walking away from and heading towards the dungeon, not in the mood to deal with Remy at the moment.
"Seriously, Mila? Class doesn't start for twenty minutes. If you don't stop walking, I will send your mother an owl and tell her how you've been acting towards Scorp." That made Mila stop in her tracks as she whipped around to glare down at the younger Potter brother.
"What do you want, Potter? You want me to give the heir an apology? Well, you're wasting your breath because it's not going to happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do than stand here and discuss sparing a spoiled brat's feelings." Mila exclaimed as she went to turn her back on him again when she was stopped by his hand reaching out and grabbing her elbow.
"Look, whatever issue you have about. Well, I'm really not sure, but I'm guessing that it's not something he actually did. So why don't you lay off, yeah?" The newly turned twelve-year-old said looking slightly down at her.
Pushing her way past Remy, Mila couldn't help but let her mind run wild thinking about how Remy needed to mind his own business. He didn't actually know who the heir was to her and Milo. He didn't know about what had happened after the bastard had found out that he was about to have half-blooded children. Of course, Remy wouldn't understand and she wasn't going to waste her breath trying to explain it to him.
ooo
Walking down the street towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Hermione could feel her heart rate picking up a bit as she neared the store front. This was the first time she was going to be seeing Ron since she'd run into Draco and she could admit that she was nervous. She was going to tell her fiancé that she'd ran into the father of her children and that he had been obliviated and that he didn't even recall a relationship with her or that he had sired her children.
It wasn't a stretch of the imagination to think that Ron wouldn't be taking the news all that well. Hell, it was damn near twenty years since the Battle of Hogwarts and Ron was still holding onto those grudges that he'd held against Malfoy and his family. The Weasley family as a whole actually shared those same thoughts, not that she could blame them since the war and death eaters were to blame for Fred's death. Hermione couldn't let this stop her from talking to Ron, communication was key in a relationship after all, and this was something they were needing to communicate about.
Malfoy seemed interested in a relationship with their twins now that they were thirteen, and he apparently now knew that they existed. He'd once called them an abomination that she needed to get rid of, but now they were older and their correspondence over the weekend had laid it out simply for her. Now that he knew about them, he wanted to actually get to know them.
Never had she denied telling the twins who their father was when they'd asked. She'd shown them pictures of him that she'd gotten from Witch Weekly or the Daily Prophet. During their breakup when he was showering the street with her belongings, he had cast an Incendio on all the pictures they'd ever taken together and all that remained of them was ash.
Learning from the different articles that she came across, she never looked for information about Malfoy or his family. She'd already been aware of Lucius's twenty-year Azkaban sentence that was to end in October of 2018. When Malfoy married Astoria, she'd spent the day in bed crying and eating a quart of ice cream while Harry and Gabrielle took care of the twins. She took the news of them having a child a bit better than she had his marriage, but not by much. Hermione wasn't completely heartless though, because when the announcement of Astoria's death in 2011 hit the news, Hermione lit a candle and silently mourned the loss for her children's half-brother.
She had informed them that they had a younger half-brother who would be joining them at Hogwarts starting their third year. Since Malfoy had kept him from the press just like she had her twins, she didn't have any details about their half-brother to tell them. Hermione had debated telling them about Astoria's death, but ultimately decided that it wasn't her place to tell them.
The details of the day that Malfoy had thrown her from their flat, she'd never disclosed to them either. It was ugly, and vial, and it had destroyed her to her very core for years. If it hadn't been for her expecting the twins, Hermione wasn't sure that she would have been able to ignore the alure of drugs and alcohol to help numb her pain, but she'd had them as a spotlight to help her get through the dark days.
As it was, she'd made it out of her depression, and now she was engaged to be married to Ronald Weasley this coming July.
Just because Draco Malfoy was now wanting to be involved in their twin's lives didn't have any bearing on how she was going to conduct her own personal life. Only, it was. She was going to have to let Ron know that Malfoy would be around trying to get to know the twins, and that wasn't something she was looking forward to. Plastering a smile on her face, Hermione opened up the door to the joke shop that her fiancé helped to manage with his brother.
"HERMIONE'S HERE!" She heard the voice of Angelina Johnson-Weasley calling out amongst the insanity that was all the newest products on display.
It had been two years since Hermione and Ron had rekindled their relationship and had decided that with time and a bit of growing up that it would be better than their first go at a relationship directly after the war. It didn't seem to matter to Mrs. Weasley that it had now been sixteen years since Hermione had turned down Ron's first proposal. The Weasley Matriarch still hadn't forgiven Hermione for the 'years' of heart break that Ron had suffered.
Hermione had her own opinion that the entire Weasley clan actually had more issue that the biological father of her children was Draco Malfoy, and she knew that they looked down on her for it. Not that Hermione had ever requested any help from anyone to raise her children. No, after her breakup with Malfoy, she'd contacted Kingsley and asked about becoming an unspeakable for the ministry and had been there ever since.
No, Hermione Granger had never asked for help with anything regarding her children. Even after Ron had moved into her home a year ago, she'd only asked that he pay for the difference in the increase of utilities, knowing that if she had asked for more, she would get an ear full from Mrs. Weasley about using her son. Whenever Ron wanted to take her out on a date, she'd always set for the twins to have a sleepover with the Potters, not wanting to ask anyone else to host the two pre-teens.
No, Molly Weasley had made it very clear. She would be tolerant of Hermione and her children, but they would never be included as a part of her family. Hermione couldn't help but be thankful that while her parents had never wanted to mend their relationship with her, at least they were doting grandparents to her children and took them for a month during the twin's summer holidays in Australia, even though it was winter there.
Hermione's thoughts were ended when she was spun on the spot in Ron's arms. "Mione! Sorry I missed you this morning. I wish you would have come with me to France to scout out the new location for the shop, you would have loved it. The food was great, the hotel was amazing and had a spa that I was able to use daily. Next time, you've got to go with me. No excuses."
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Hermione put aside just how annoyed she was with Ron anytime he made comments like that. He knew that she'd been seeing her children off to their third year at Hogwarts. That she hadn't just blown him off, just because she didn't want to go on a holiday with him. However, this was the first time that she was seeing him in a week and she wasn't going to start it with an argument.
"It's okay, I got the twins off to Hogwarts and I was so busy with work I just couldn't get away." The bit about work was a lie. She hadn't been busy at all, there was nothing happening in the DOM that she couldn't have stepped away from for a week. Only, Hermione knew that putting her children ahead of Ron would be a one-way ticket to a row in the middle of the shop and she needed to keep him calm as possible before she brought up Malfoy.
"It's okay, we're actually looking at a spot in Sydney that I'll be traveling to check out in December. Since it will be summer there, we can go together and make it a whole pre-wedding holiday for just the two of us." Ron swooped down and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. Hermione resisted the urge to swipe her hand across where his lips had just been, but she managed it.
"That sounds lovely, I'll make the arrangements at work to make sure I'm free." Again, not going to start an argument about something that wasn't going to be happening for three months. He wanted to take her to Sydney Australia, you know, the same city that her estranged parents now resided in.
"Ron, do you have a little bit of time and a place we could talk, privately? There was something that I was needing to talk to you about." Hermione said looking around and spotted Angelina and George working together on inventory and another one of their employees working on deep cleaning the shop.
"Oh, yeah, sure. We can go back to my office." Ron said with a wink, clearly having his train of thought going towards them doing other, activities.
Silently following Ron through the store and into the back where the storage, lab, and the offices were located; Hermione followed Ron into his own personal office. It was small, with a few filing cabinets and a desk that dominated most of the space. On the wall were framed old clippings from the Daily Prophet from right after the war, talking about the Golden Trio and Ron's role in defeating Voldemort especially.
There were a few smaller articles highlighting him time as an auror and the big cases that he'd been apart of. On his desk was a framed picture of Hermione and Ron when he'd proposed at the Battle of Hogwarts gala, and she'd happily accepted. There was no sign of the twins in his office or the role that he played in their life, but that was okay. Hermione knew that it was awkward for him to be living with Draco Malfoy's children, but still it hurt because they were also her children.
As she turned to face him, Ron was on top of her, pushing her back until her legs hit the edge of his desk. Ron's mouth was on hers, quickly making his way towards her jaw and down her neck. Should have known she should have moved faster to keep him at bay.
"Ron, as nice as this is, there really is something I needed to talk to you about." Ron just hummed against her skin and continued his path towards her collarbone.
"Ronald, I'm being serious. I need to talk to you." Ron's fingers began fumbling with the buttons of her blouse and with a shake of her head, Hermione put her hands on his chest and softly pushed him back, being firm but not aggressive in her denial.
"Ron, really. Something happened at King's Cross and I need to talk to you about it." Pulling back, Ron finally seemed to be thinking with the right head.
"What did Harry do?" Ron asked as he looked her over, looking rather cross as he inspected her.
"Honestly Ronald, you can't be jealous of Harry. He's married if you forgot." Ron just scuffed at this, making Hermione roll her eyes this time. Ron had never gotten over being put in Harry's shadow, and the insecurities that had driven him to abandon Harry and Hermione on the Horcrux hunt still seemed to plague him twenty years later.
"No, it has to do with the kids. I wanted to talk to you about it so that you weren't surprised." At the mention of her children, Ron went from looking angry with her to annoyed.
"Mione, I love you and I'm glad you care so much, but you really don't have to feel like you need to keep me updated on what's happening with them." Huffing, Hermione put her hands back up to stop Ron from making his move on her again. It endlessly annoyed her that he was so dismissive of her children, but she understood. They weren't his, but they were hers and they were her top priority.
"Malfoy was there, and Mila talked to him." Hermione knew that dropping Malfoy's name would make Ron react.
"Seriously, you went there and hung out with Malfoy. What the fuck, Hermione. Why would you even look at the bloody ferret?" Of course, Ron would twist her words, but Hermione was going to get through this conversation.
"Honestly Ronald, it wasn't like that. His other son just started his first year, it's not as if I've spoken to him since we broke up. I tried telling you that I knew he'd be there, but anytime I brought it up you'd blow me off." Ron's eyeroll had Hermione putting her hands on her hips and looking up into his face.
"You know just as well as I do that you did. Anyway, after Mila approached him, Milo of course followed her, and Malfoy obviously saw the resemblance between himself and Milo. After the train left, he came over wanting to talk to me, and at first, I told him off for it, but then I did end up talking to him." Ron's face had started turning red as Hermione continued to talk, she was going to finish getting all this out for him before he blew up on her.
"We talked for a bit, left the station and went to a park so we wouldn't be overheard. He had no idea about the twin's existence. I checked his brain and it had traces of an obliviation. I've been writing with him over the weekend, and finding out what all he remembers. He doesn't remember being friends with me eighth year, just remembers finishing school and getting his NEWTS. He remembers going through curse breaker training and working at Gringotts, but he doesn't remember that I was his partner for all of that. And get this, we both put in our resignation on the same day. His was part of his betrothal contract, because being a curse breaker was too dangerous of a career. I guess that's standard for the Malfoy family that they take up the family business once they're married, so it didn't raise any red flags for him, Ron, hello, are you listening to me."
Hermione had stopped talking because Ron was looking more irritated as she spoke. She couldn't figure it out though, this was important. This was about her children and their relationship with their father. If she could help them connect, then didn't she owe that to her children?
"You're telling me that you spent a weekend corresponding with Draco Fucking Malfoy. What, you just waited until I was out of the country. This is just like last time, Hermione! You let him come between us before and you're doing it again now!" Ron bellowed at her, causing her to back up slowly, her back hitting the door.
"No, Ron, you don't understand. We were only trying to piece together a timeline. There's nothing going on between me and Malfoy, the things he said to me, they were unforgivable. He's just shown that he'd like to possibly have a relationship with the twins. This isn't he and I trying to rekindle anything, please, you have to believe me." When it came to Draco Malfoy, Ron had always been a bit irrational and make absurd claims that always threw her for a loop.
"He wants the kids?" Ron's features flashed a quick change while looking down at Hermione, his irritation pausing for just a moment.
"Well, he wants to try building a relationship with them. Mila sent me a letter and let me know that her and Milo are going out for their house team again this year, so if they make it I thought it would be a good start to invite him to a match to see them play and show them support." Hermione stepped away from the door, brushing the dust that had been disrupted off her clothes and straightening them out.
"Well, if he's wanting to meet them and what not, is he wanting to take them for holidays too then?" Ron asked leaning back against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh, well, we haven't exactly talked about what type of relationship he's looking for with them, but yes, I'd assume something along those line where we might split the holidays with him. The kids are thirteen though, so they'll get to have a say in how comfortable they are with this whole arrangement." Hermione wasn't blind, she knew that Ron wanted as little to do with the kids as possible. It still stung that he'd be so thrilled at the idea of having even less time with them.
"I've got to get back to work, but I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I have an overnight project I'm overseeing, so I won't be home this evening. I just didn't want this to wait any longer for you to know about this Malfoy situation." Ron's jaw clenched as the mention of Malfoy's name again. Hermione reached up on her toes and laid a soft kiss on prickly cheek before pulling away again and opening his office door.
Ron didn't say anything as Hermione stepped through the doorway, but she turned and gave him one last wave and a smile before disappearing down the hall and back into the main store. Hermione knew one thing; this was not going to be the last argument she and Ron would have over Draco Malfoy.
A/N: Got to love sweet Remy just looking out for his friend. BUT, what do you think about Hermione's relationship with Ron!? So, when I first started writing this story, I wasn't going to include Draco and Hermione's breakup. I wrote chapters two and three first and after writing her interaction with Ron, I thought it would benefit the readers to see just how awful it was to hurt Hermione so badly.
Being estranged from her parents has altered the types of relationships she allows and her awful breakup with Draco did its toll on her as well. Thus, Ron not being the best partner and her allowing it isn't a stretch.
Next chapter is a Hermione POV only and she's meeting with Draco. We'll get to find out her thoughts on him being obliviated.
Expect an update no later than this coming Monday! I have another story, Child of Dawn, that I'm working on completing (it's getting close, within the next two months it will be finished) and once that is finished, I'll be able to throw more time into this one. Updates will be at least once a week, and if I can manage, twice a week. Once I have a better idea on a chapter count, I'll let you know.
Alright, bye for now!