A/N: This chapter took so long to finish just because turns out everyone in my house needs my attention, all the time. I did manage to make plans for my birthday and get a haircut. Plus the weather here has been so nice one day and then awful the next, so we've been out in the backyard trying to clean it up. It's really a nightmare.

Oh, thinking, and this is just a thought, since I'm getting more confidence in my writing that I might like a beta reader or two. Right now, I send my unpolished chapters to my friends, but I think I'd like to expand to a couple beta readers. For real, send me a message if you're interested.

Oh, speaking of my friends. One asked for a Viktor/Hermione story and that's being worked on. It's going to be a short one, but I'm enjoying it thus far. I really don't mind Hermione being paired off with others, only… Draco can't be in the story if that's the case or a VERY minimal role. So, when I get around to publishing that (because it's about a third of the way finished right now), if you'd like to see that it'll be up later this month.

Paranoid Draco, sigh. Poor soul. Will this be the last of Draco POV I write for this story? Eh, probably not. Now that I've introduced it, I'll use it sparingly. Only, I'll have to figure out where to stick it in and so that it flows with the story and isn't out of place.

What are you going to learn? Well, you get to find out who Theo's wife is! More notes at the end.

Chapter 11: Theo and Blaise

Theo stood watching Draco with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, well what memory? You've been acting abnormal for months." Theo's sapphire blue eyes squinted looking him over. "Is this because of Granger and finding out about the twins?"

"Let's just wait for Blaise so as I don't have to repeat myself." Draco said coolly looking his friend over before settling himself back into his chair.

Taking his lead, Theo went to make himself a drink before finding his own seat. The tension in the silence between them was thicker than it had ever been between the two friends. There had always been an underlying understanding between them, even before they realized that they needed each other. Both men were from old money, old pure-blood families, and had fathers who had leaned towards abuse in their childhood punishments.

They had shared everything growing up, because they both related so much to each other. Even more now that Draco knew about his relationship with Hermione. That might be what made him so irate with Theo, because there would be no way that someone so important to him wouldn't have known about his relationship with Hermione, and then for it to never have been brought up or mentioned again, even if Theo wasn't responsible for his memory loss, Draco was still upset with the man.

It felt like hours, but it was probably only twenty minutes tops, when Blaise stepped out of the hearth, his usual loud and obnoxious greeting was cut short by the atmosphere in the room. "Are we fighting?" The Italian man asked, "because if we are, then I can just go call Giana. She always likes to tell me what a stupid arse I am and I know what to expect with a fight with her."

Draco couldn't stop the eye roll at his friend, Blaise always did have a flare for the dramatics. "Shut up and sit down." Draco instructed, gesturing towards the empty chair. "We're not fighting, but I do have a few questions for the two of you."

This comment caused the other two men exchanged a quick look, before Blaise shrugged his shoulders and grabbed himself a tumbler and brought the entire bottle of Ogden's with him to his own chair. A quick 'this seems like the rest of this bottle and then some will be needed' was all the explanation given when Theo sent him a judgmental look before settling back into his own chair, feigning a nonchalant position.

"Alright mate, go on then. Tell us what this is all about." Theo said before taking a mouthful of liquid from his own glass. "You want to talk about Granger now that you know she's had your kids and you want to know why we didn't tell you about seeing your son, since he looks exactly like you. Does that about cover it?"

Leaning back in his own chair before summoning a pack of cigarettes and an ash tray, Draco lit one with a snap of his fingers. Taking a deep drag and looking at his friends, Draco let the smoke slowly release from his lungs before answering. "Yeah, let's start there." Taking another inhale, he squinted at the pair as the smoke coming from his nose slightly burned his eyes. "The boy is a year younger and in the same house as both your sons. You would have both seen him at the platform, and then I'm sure your kids have mentioned him at some point to you."

Taking a pull straight from the bottle, Blaise set it on his leg as he leaned forward, letting his forearms rest on his thighs. Giving a barking laugh, Blaise shook his head before looking Draco in the eye. A deep breath seemed to calm him, then he paused thoughtfully before speaking at last.

"You think Matteo talks about anyone besides kids in his own year or ones that he's either friends with or fighting? This is the first year either of our sons were on the Quidditch team, so it's not as if we were ever at Hogwarts to get a look at the student body to search for your son, who we had no idea even existed until we went to support the sprogs." Taking another drink from the bottle, Blaise continued, "As for seeing him at King's Cross, well I'm not sure if you've met the she daemon that I reproduced with, but anything involving Giana means that I'm usually wrapped up dealing with her being egocentric. I swear to Merlin, anytime we're within shouting distance of each other, she's demanding more money. So, at the platform, for me at least, it's see the boy off, and because Giana insists on joining us to drop Matteo off every bloody time, I have to move as quickly as possible. I've never picked him from the station because that's the start of her time with the boy and the less time near her the better for me."

"You've honestly never noticed anything besides Giana when you're dropping your kid off to go to Hogwarts." Draco asked, thinking back on what little he knew about Blaise's ex-girlfriend. It had been Blaise's twenty-second birthday party the night he's met Giana and conceived his son. Draco hadn't been around for her pregnancy, as the two had stayed in Italy to be near her family during her pregnancy. They were well broken up and moved onto other people by the time Blaise's twenty-third birthday rolled around, and she had been a right pain ever since.

"Hell no, the woman is a right cow. The only reason I got to enjoy the Quidditch match is because Matt neglected in telling his mother that he made the team. Thank Salazar for small favors." Blaise finished his statement by taking another swig from the bottle. Draco couldn't help the small chuckle, even though things with Giana hadn't worked out, Blaise had always been a good father to his son. The two had a close relationship, despite all the efforts of Giana to keep them apart.

Turning his attention from his Italian friend over to the curly haired man that was rolling his glass between his hands. "Alright, well Blaise has family drama to explain away his lack of attention to details. Tell me, Theodore, how is it that you and your wife managed to not notice a child who looks exactly like me with Hermione Granger," Draco said.

Hesitating briefly, Theo finally looked up at Draco, his mouth curving downwards as he spoke. "Penelope and I, we never approached Granger when we saw her at the station. She was always there with Potter and his clan, I saw all the kids there, obviously, but I just assumed her son was Potter's. You've seen his wife, yeah? I never got a good look, just saw the hair and it's the same color as Potter's part Veela wife's and his youngest daughter's.

"You know, we've never bothered with paying attention to the famous birth announcements, and just figured that they'd had a set of fraternal twins when we first saw them a few years ago. I mean, Granger obviously did, but I after you broke things off with her, I just assumed that her daughter was from a rebound fling with Krum or someone else."

There was a break in the conversation as Draco digested Theo's explanation. Truth be told, he also hadn't paid any attention to The Daily Prophet and their celebrity birth announcements. He also had to admit that while he'd noticed Hermione and the Potters at King's Cross, he had also at first made the same assumption that Theo had about Milo. His hair was the same shade of white that Potter's daughter and wife had, though he also hadn't been really looking at them as at the time he had no idea that Hermione Granger was an important piece of his past.

After the lull and the three friends sipped on their respective drinks, lost in their own thoughts when Theo continued speaking. "When we met up for drinks for her birthday that year, you told us that things were over between the two of you and that you never wanted to hear the name 'Hermione Granger' again. Well, I mean, you used more colourful language than that, but Penny and I weren't going to bring up your ex when you went as far as to quit your job to separate yourself from her after breaking up." Sitting back, Theo ran his hands in his hair in a show of frustration.

"Ethan came home going on about a Granger girl a year younger than him, but I didn't think you would want to know that she had moved on so fast and had a kid with someone else. It never even crossed my mind to think that you were the girl's father. I mean, Granger has a mean streak, and from what Ethan's told me so does that daughter of hers. He never mentioned a boy, so I just figured she only had the one kid." Theo was now looking up at him with a blank expression. It made sense, really it did, but clearly Theo and his wife had been friends with him and Hermione.

Pulling another cigarette from his case, Draco lit it and took a deep inhale trying to settle the nerves that had come from Theo's explanation. His friends, at least it seemed, were not aware that he had been obliviated. They were only trying to respect his wishes, even if he didn't believe that those were truly what he wanted.

"Did she really not tell you she was pregnant?" Blaise asked, breaking the silence at last, taking a drag from a cigarette of his own.

Finishing his drink, Draco held out his hand and wordlessly summoned a new bottle of whiskey before answering. He slowly poured himself a new drink that he felt he needed to get through the rest of this conversation. Feeling pretty drunk at this point, Draco didn't even notice the burn of the whiskey as he took a long pull from the tumbler. Looking between his friends, Draco let out a sigh and took out his wand. "I'm going to need a Wizard's Oath from you both that nothing we talk about leaves this room."

"An oath? Surely you must be joking?" Blaise said setting his glass and bottle onto the table next to his chair, but pulling his wand out all the same.

"Not even my wife?" Theo asked, mimicking Blaise's actions.

"Not even Penelope. I don't know who's involved, but it's at the point that I need to tell you both." Draco explained as they touched the tips of their wands together, a blinding light flashed sealing the oath, and it was time to show part of his hand to them. "I was obliviated sometime after I ended my relationship with Granger. I've since begun recovering my memories, but prior to that, I never gave Hermione Granger a second though. I remembered her, but it was more as if she were a passing person in my life and not someone who was of any importance to me." He explained as much as he could, without mentioning that it was Hermione who he was working with to recover his memories.

Blaise let out a whistle while Theo's face blanched. "I don't know if I hired someone to Obliviate me or if someone did it against my will. Granger gave me her memory of our breakup, and she most certainly had told me that we were expecting a baby, but she wasn't far enough along that she was showing, so we might not have gotten around to telling anyone about the pregnancy before then.

"I just need to know what the two of you remember about mine and Granger's relationship, because I can't believe how fucked up my life has gotten from all this." Draco finished, tipping his glass against his lips, taking another swallow.

"Mate, I don't really know much about you and Granger, to be honest. With Matteo living with Giana and being so young, I was mostly living in Italy to be near him when you two were dating. I saw you a few times at functions, but I had my own fucked up life that I wasn't around to know anything about any of this. I knew the two of you were friends and partners at work, but I didn't spend any significant time with her." Blaise said sitting back, resting his ankle on his knee. "Theo and Penny had just gotten married. I mean, I saw you two at the wedding and that was about the most I know."

"Granger was my date to your wedding?" Draco said turning on Theo who had just taken another swallow of his whiskey.

"No, not your date. Weasley was her date and you went stag. Uh, but the two of you spent most the night together though." At this, Draco thought back to what he remembered about the night of Theo's wedding. It had been a summer wedding, on the summer solstice, in 2000 or 2001, he just knew that there hadn't been a Quidditch World Cup that year. He remembered standing up at the alter with Theo while his bride, Penelope Clearwater had walked down the aisle with her father, but none of her wedding party stuck out in his mind. He most certainly didn't remember Hermione even being at the wedding.

Now that Draco was thinking about the Nott wedding, he vaguely remembered how Theo's father had tried to sabotage the union due to Penelope being a muggle-born. Thanatos Nott had made it abundantly clear that if he were ever able to get out of Azkaban that he would personally see to it that the Nott name came to an end with his blood-traitor son and any half-blooded children his marriage produced.

To say that Thanatos was not a reformed Death Eater was an understatement. The blood purist had been stripped of his rights to being head of the family after he was handed down a twenty-year Azkaban sentence, just as Lucius had been given. Only, when Theo and Penelope's engagement announcement had come out, Thanatos had commissioned to have his daughter-in-law to be poisoned, another ten years had been tacked onto his sentencing.

With the man's advanced age, already depleting health, and the living conditions in Azkaban, the chances of him living to see the light of day again were slim to none.

"Granger is actually the one who introduced me to Penny. She tagged along with us for your birthday night out the year we graduated from Hogwarts. Penny was there with some of her friends, and well she saw Granger and I guess being Petrified with someone brings you together in an odd way. Granger saw something between us and made the introductions. I asked her out on a date later that night, she said yes, and six months later we were engaged and the following summer we were married.

"Penny and Granger weren't close friends, but they were friendly enough that we did a lot of double dating and couple things together. After you and Granger broke things off, well, Penny and her just never talked again and since you told us not to bring her up, we just didn't. I know Penny tried reaching out to her for a few months after, but Granger never responded.

"You were engaged to Astoria, so it felt wrong to bring up your ex, even if we'd wanted to ask you more questions about what happened. I'm sorry, Draco. I wish I could tell you more, but you kept your relationship with Granger private and then we had Ethan during that time, so we were also navigating becoming parents."

Theo sat back, thoughtfully before adding, "you told me once that Winston Greengrass wrote you asking about making a betrothal contract, but that you turned him down since you were courting someone. I just assumed that something had changed when you showed up already pissed raving about Granger and how you were already engaged to Astoria." Theo finished, setting his tumbler back off to the side where it disappeared and stood up to put a hand on Draco's shoulder.

"Look mate, I'm going to head out because it seems like you have a lot on your mind and need some time to sort through all this. If you think of anymore questions, just let me know." Theo said stepping away from Draco and towards the fireplace.

"Yeah, think I'm going to go too." Blaise said, also standing up and stretching his arms above his head. "There's a new club I was wanting to check out before the kid comes home for the holiday. The Christmas holiday is mine this year, and I need to burry myself in as many women before I'm forced to endure Giana." Blaise slapped Draco's shoulder as well and followed behind Theo, disappearing as well.

As soon as the sounds from their departure had ended, in a fit of frustration, Draco stood up throwing the crystal at the wall, causing it to shatter. Glass flew into the plush rug, to be hidden there until a house elf came later this evening to clean his study. The discarded Fire Whiskey had tipped over, filling the room with the cinnamon scent from the liquid. Stumbling, and tripping slightly over his own feet, Draco reached out a hand to steady himself against the doors leading out to his balcony.

The warmth from the alcohol allowed him to step out into the December chill, looking out into the night sky. The more answers he found; the more questions came up. He would have to write a letter to Thomas and let him know what Theo and Blaise had known, which was basically nothing, but that they most likely weren't involved in what had happened to him.

An unknown amount of time passed while Draco chain smoked his way through almost a full pack of cigarettes on his balcony, when off in the distance an owl's silhouette was making its way towards him. Looking over his shoulder, Draco couldn't stop the frown from spreading across his face at he noted the late hour. At almost midnight, there were very few people who would be sending him a letter now instead of just waiting until morning to contact him.

The bird, who he now recognized as Hermione's personal owl, easily landed on the railing, when it held out its leg. "Well, what is your mistress wanting now?" Draco asked the owl who replied with a small hoot before taking off towards the Manor's owlery.

Opening the envelope, Draco had to squint, as the smoke from the cigarette in his mouth billowed up into his eyes. After reading the letter, however, Draco's jaw dropped open. The sight of movement in the moonlight was the burning end of the cigarette as it fell and disappeared to the grounds below him. Reading it again, Draco turned on his heels in frustration and stormed away without bothering to vanish the filled ashtray.

Malfoy,

I apologize for the notice, but I was needing to rescind the invitation that Mila had extended you to joining us for Christmas Eve dinner. I apologize for the late hour, but I wanted to ensure that I did not forget to send this before you attempted to come to our home.

Hermione J. Granger

A/N: Heyyyyyy, so now we know that Blaise has stuck himself with a money grabbing bitch. Poor sweet Blaise. Theo is married to Penelope Clearwater! SO, when I was looking into her, there wasn't an answer for sure if she was a muggle-born or a half-blood. I decided for this story, that it'll work out better for me if she was a muggle-born.

And HERMIONE! Why are you uninviting Draco and Scorpius for Christmas Eve dinner!? Oh, there's a reason that we're going to find out in the next chapter? Okay, sounds good. What do you think would have caused her to rescind the invitation? Let me know those theories!

If you're wondering, we are doing MASSIVE time jumps, but that will be ending because a LOT will be happening over the Christmas Holiday. Like a lot, a lot. Going to be very focused on the twins and Scorpius (because in case you were wondering, he's going to start showing off his personality a bit more coming up!) Yay! Sibling love!

That's all I have for now. There will be another update next week at some point. Hopefully more than one, but I won't make a promise I can't keep.