AN: And here's the next one. I pretty much wrote this chapter after the chapter I had originally intended to be chapter 40 had been drafted and I'm actually considering drafting a new 41 as well because there's a lot of things I want to cover such as the Draco/Narcissa dynamic right now amongst other things. Other housekeeping notes I am pretty much making up shit about UK family law. I don't practice in the UK and do not advise anyone to use this or any other fan fic legal scene as actual legal advice.

Chapter 40: Not That Guy

It was clear Remus was seeing someone, Emma thought. She had a sneaking suspicion who it was, but it really was none of her business. Still she may have been slightly annoyed with the pep in his step. Mainly, because her personal life was sucking big time right about now.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked her.

"I had court today."

He raised his eyebrow, "The divorce?"

"I…I had to testify that Dan wasn't her father it wasn't pretty."

In fact, the confrontation with Dan had been pretty heart wrenching.

"Are you seriously playing the paternity card now?" He said cornering her after the judge had called a short recess.

She rolled her eyes, "Dan, if you want to talk to me it will need to be through my attorney."

"Oh, don't start that bull shit." He snapped even though Ted had more or less told her this in uncertain terms, especially since it was pretty clear they couldn't talk rationally with each other. "I thought you liked to keep the fact you couldn't keep your legs crossed before we met."

She glared at him, even though she had lied to him in the past that she didn't know who Hermione's biological father was. It was just too painful to talk about Remus after she left.

"Talk to my lawyer, Dan." She glared at him before she went back into the courtroom to tell Ted what happened.

Ted then had more or less tore Dan up on the stand. It also helped that they had subpoenaed members of the St. Mungo's staff that stated Dan was more or less acting like a lunatic at the hospital that day where he was oblivated.

Of course, the story had been slightly altered for a muggle audience.

And of course, Dan denied it.

It didn't phase the judge though who denied visitation and more or less told Dan he had no rights to Hermione. It was a rather painful to watch and it sort of hurt her just as much in a weird way.

She hadn't wanted to do this to him, but he really left her with no choice. She was a little disturbed he was acting this way which she mentioned to Ted.

"People act all weird during a divorce, Emma." He said, "Dan's behavior isn't that out of the ordinary."

"But he's not the man I knew."

Remus looked at her, "That bad?"

"We got everything we wanted in court," She said. "I just have to figure out how to tell…"

"Hermione the truth," He said. "Has she even asked about Dan?"

"She remembers the divorce, I think" She said. "I'm pretty sure she remembered that he went ballistic."

Remus grimaced.

"I know. I still haven't figured out how to tell her the truth."

Remus sighed, "She needs to know, Emma. We need to decide what we're going to do about that and school."

Emma frowned when she heard the bit about the school. "There are options. She speaks fluent French."

"She'd hate Beauxbatons," He said with a scowl.

Emma raised an eyebrow.

"A lot of elitists send their kids there like the French prime minister. Though France is a little bit more liberal on blood status and magical creatures it still has its own issues."

"Drumstrung also wouldn't work," he said before she could even mention it.

"Obviously, my stupid brother wanted to go there."

"Of course, Peter would. I still can't believe I was friends with that loser for so long."

"To be fair, you were friends with him the last few years mainly to see me."

"Which I have no memory of," he said sadly.

"I forget I'm practically a stranger to you," she said.

He shrugged. "Well, not a stranger now."

She smiled, "That's not what I mean and you know it."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for Remus."

"I'm not him," he said. "I'm…I'm never going to be him, Emma."

Remus sighed heavily as he told Emma that more or less he wasn't the Remus she had known and likely would never be. It was a sad thing to admit.

He knew his baby mama—which probably was the best term to coin her even though it was a little crass—had a hard day. She had told him about the custody hearing and he had been willing to testify if need be regarding Hermione's paternity, but that apparently had not been necessary.

Instead, a court had ruled that Dan wasn't the father and yet…his little girl still didn't know.

He wanted her to know the truth which he had more or less admitted to Narcissa the other night on one of their dates.

He couldn't help but smile as he thought of the blonde beauty. They had only been out a couple of times but he enjoyed her company immensely in and out of bed.

He knew that they were moving fast but….well, Narcissa had needs and so did he. And it oddly worked.

"I don't expect us to get back together," Emma finally said looking at him, "If that's what you're implying."

He grimaced. "No, it's not. I'm just saying I'm not your Remus. Who knows what all your brother did to that head of mine."

Now it was Emma's turn to look upset

"The potion can alter your personality."

"That does explain some things."

"Was I that much different?"

"Well, the Remus I know wouldn't have worn a stupid mustache." She said with a smirk.

"I shaved it off," He said.

"For your new girlfriend. It's Healer Black, isn't it?"

He turned bright red. At least he still blushed. She used to—and still did—find it a bit endearing.

"I wouldn't say girlfriend, but yes we're dating." He said.

"I like Healer Black," she said.

Although, a part of Emma screamed that the sophisticated healer was not his type. Though that was ridiculous she didn't know Remus's type after all these years and for all she knew he could like delicate blondes.

"I like her a lot. She's had a rough year. We all have. You too. And especially Hermione. Narcissa did actually have a good suggestion of something that could resolve the issue of school next year."

Emma raised an eyebrow, "Oh? You already said the school in France was out."

"I did," he said. "She thought maybe a complete fresh start could be done for her so she could attend Hogwarts."

"I don't want her attending that school, I thought maybe we could find a private tutor…"

"They can expensive," Remus said. "I don't know if either of us have the funds…"

"I don't want her attending that school, Remus." Emma said. "That's a non-starter. I don't care what Healer Black's idea is even if she is your girlfriend."

"I understand," He said. "But what Narcissa proposed is something to really consider concerning Hermione's name has been all over the papers."

"And what's that?" Emma said. "People will still recognize her as the Rat of Gryffindor as soon as they see her face."

"Not if she doesn't have the same face and the same name," Remus said.

Emma gave him a weird look. "What on Earth are you talking about?"

"There are charms and potions that can alter your appearance permanently." He said. "You've probably heard about them."

Emma grimaced knowing where he was getting at with this. She had seen some of those ads in mother's magazines. A spell that could change the color of your eyes, a potion that could guarantee you an hourglass figure. It seemed dangerous especially for a preteen that already was dealing with body image issues. "She already has so many issues with her appearance already, Remus. And even if she does change her appearance that doesn't change her name."

"Her last name should be Lupin," He said. "It wouldn't be that difficult to get her name change to say Jane Lupin…..after all, that is her middle name, isn't it?"
"I chose Jean at the last minute actually," She said even though her heart had been set on Jane for awhile since she had loved Jane Austen. Dan had been against it. Jean was his mother's name.

"She looks more like a Jane," Remus said.

Emma had thought so too.

"I'd like to explore the private tutor idea first, Remus, before I allow her to change her identity." Emma said even though she knew Remus had made some valid points even if she didn't want to admit it. And she still had to figure out how to tell her daughter the truth about her paternity.

They were hiding something from her.

Mummy and Uncle Remus. She was pretty sure it involved her dad.

Hermione frowned as she looked up from Jane Eyre. She had read the book twice since Uncle Remus had last been here. She had heard he lived in Switzerland. She still hadn't had a chance to really ask about him. Though she did wonder….she looked more like him than Daddy.

No, don't be ridiculous, he was just Mummy's brother. Not that they looked really alike either other than being tall and Uncle Remus's hair being the same shade hers used to be.

"I got you another book," Her uncle said. "Figured you finished Jane Eyre by now."

"I read it twice," she said. "Though a third read through wouldn't hurt either. As far as she was concerned that book would never get old.

"I brought in your namesake today," He said holding up a worn copy of The Winters Tale. Hermione had never really read much Shakespeare, she always assumed that she was named after the figure in the Iliad, Daddy had never really been a fan for the bard's work even though she knew Mummy would occasionally go to the Globe and be a total tourist.

"The Winter's Tale, really?" She said looking at Mummy, "I thought I was named after the character in The Iliad."

"Like I name you after a cursed heroine." Her mother said.

"Well, she's sort of cursed in The Winter's Tale too," Uncle Remus pointed out.

"She had a happy ending though," Mummy said rolling her eyes. "Ugh, bookworms."

It was the first time Mummy had seemed like herself that day and Hermione told her as much.

"Don't be ridiculous," Her mother said.

"You had to deal with Daddy, didn't you?" She asked.

"Hermione…."

"Maybe you two should have a moment alone," Uncle Remus said obviously sensing that Hermione wasn't going to let this drop.

Mummy glared at him but nodded.

She looked at Mummy. She still wasn't used to how thin she had become. She was actually dressed up today and wearing makeup for the first time in a long time. Even her curls were styled like they used to before….well, before she turned into a rat.

She was still having a hard time processing that she had essentially been in that cage until a few weeks ago.

And yet there was a part of her that still wanted in that cage.

"I remember the two of you fighting," She said. "It scared me."

Mummy grimaced.

"You were at court today, weren't you?" She asked looking at the way she was dressed.

"Baby…"

"I can't turn back," She said. "You made sure I can't go into the abyss and fade."

She hadn't exactly been told what they had done for her. She knew she was getting transfusions of some sort, but she didn't know how that had to do with anything with her situation. And none of the healers not even Healer Tonks who usually answered all her questions were answering her. She just knew they got very tense at certain parts of the month watching her like she was going to attack them or something. But she hadn't. She hadn't been able to do anything until they started the transfusion.

Her mother sighed heavily. "I wanted you to get stronger before we talk about what happened between me and your dad."

"He doesn't like magic," Hermione said. "And got freaked out here, didn't he?"

"A bit," Her mother said. "But magic isn't the reason we're divorcing."

No. She wasn't exactly surprise that her parents were separated. She knew they were together in part because of her. They really had nothing to talk about otherwise. She remembered how awkward last year's holiday was.

Hermione sighed heavily, "I'm still upset even though I sort of expected it."

"I know, love." Her mother said. "You've dealt with a lot this year. You don't deserve this either. There will be a lot of changes."

She felt her body tense up a little, but as usual she couldn't fade.

"He hasn't…visited."

"It hasn't exactly been safe," Mummy said with a sigh. "He…he reacted poorly to what happened to you and didn't want to get you the proper treatment."

"You mean treatment with magic."

Her mother nodded.

"Daddy hates magic."

"But he doesn't hate you," Mummy said. "It's just…right now is neither of you are in a good place to see each other."

Hermione sighed as much as she hated to admit it she knew her mother was right. She saw how her father came in her room looking crazed how he had pretty much screamed he was going to take her away from Mummy and magic.

She may not have been biggest fan at times of magic herself, but it was still a part of her. The rationale part of her brain still knew she had to get her powers under control, but she did not want to go to Hogwarts and she told her mother as much.

"We're looking at options." Her mother said.

"Who is we're?" She asked.

"Your uncle and I." Mummy said biting her lip when she said uncle.

Hermione gave her a look, "Why didn't you mention to me before you had a brother that was a wizard?"

"My past is complicated." Mummy said. "I…well, I pretty much left the magical world behind by the time I met Dan."

Hermione gave her a look. "There's more to the story isn't there?"

"Yes, but today is not a day to discuss said things." Mummy said looking at her. "Focus on your recovery."

"Emma wants to focus on private tutoring," Remus found himself telling Narcissa later that evening over fondue.

Cissy had a craving for the stuff and honestly it had been a while since he had some good cheese. He tried not to think of rats when he thought of cheese which was easier said than done these days. Though watching his very pregnant date devour it with such passion sort of took the image out of his head. Passion that only rivaled what he would experience later that evening.

Cissy raised one of her eyebrows as she dipped one of the apples ravenously into the cheese. "Sirius mentioned he was going to be doing that with Harry this year. In fact, I think he wants to talk about hiring you on for teaching him some subjects during the year."

Sirius had been more than generous with what he was paying him to tutor Harry for the summer. It supplemented the income he got at the enchanting shop quite a lot where he was able to drop having to actually work at the shop and just take work home. He was actually hired to teach both boys, but Draco hadn't exactly embraced tutoring so much unlike Harry.

Probably because he and Cissy were seeing each other. It wasn't exactly a secret by any means. He did spend a lot of nights at the lodge with her. Her appetite wasn't confide to just food, and honestly being with her calmed the wolf in him.

"I don't know if I could home school by my own child," He said. "A child that still doesn't know I'm her father."

Narcissa shook her head as she grabbed another apple to dip into the cheese. "She still hasn't told her?"

"It's complicated as you know," he said. "Her mental state…"

"I know," She said. "I'm taking it Emma didn't like the idea of possibly changing her name and giving her a makeover."

"She doesn't really want to do it due to body image issues."

"Makes sense I suppose," she said. "But it's probably your only other option if tutoring doesn't work. Maxime's curriculum is weak at best and tailored towards the elite at worst and do we even need to talk about Drumstrang."

"Draco mentioned that he almost went there."

"Oh, my son's talking to you now?"

"I overheard him tell that to Harry."

"I'm surprised they were even talking to each other." Narcissa said.

The boys hadn't exactly bonded like Sirius and Narcissa had hoped they might. It really wasn't that big of a surprise considering they were very different personalities. Harry internalized everything; Draco exploded. Harry had tendencies to be taken advantage of and be a doormat; Draco took advantage. Harry had taken to him; Draco had certainly not.

Cissy shrugged. "He has to talk to someone and it wasn't friendly by any means. Sometimes I'm afraid he's going to turn out to be just like his father."

She mentioned this often and honestly Remus could see her concerned he just didn't know what to tell her. He felt bad for the boy but at the same time, he didn't exactly like the boy either.

"Hermione mentioned him once," he found himself telling her.

"Hopefully, she didn't recall him terrorizing her."

"He wasn't involved in the incident," Remus said. "She actually said they talked before it happened that he seemed remorseful."

Narcissa looked surprised. "He shouldn't have made fun of her in the first place."

Remus shook her head. "Don't be too hard on him, Ciss."

She sighed heavily. "It's hard. I see Lucius whenever I see him, Remus. I always have, I just now realized…I'm a terrible mother."

He shook his head. "Don't judge yourself that hard, Draco is admittedly a difficult kid."

She laughed, "He gets that from both the Black and Malfoy side I'm afraid. He's stubborn. Do you know he's still refusing to go to your tutoring sessions even after I told him he can't use magic unless he does?"

Remus looked at her. "You do realize he sees me as the guy who stole his mother away from his dad."

"That's…" She stopped herself. "I really do need to talk to him, don't I?"

He looked at her, "I'm not giving you parenting advice."

She laughed, "You just did."

Narcissa saw her son glaring daggers at her new boyfriend. Maybe boyfriend was too strong of a word. She didn't know how to classify whatever was going on between her and Remus just that she enjoyed his company in more ways than one.

Her libido had been ridiculous the past couple of weeks. It wasn't like her to jump into a relationship especially having sex the way she was with Remus. Especially when she was almost seven months pregnant with triplets.

Draco looked at her scowling, "What?"

"We need to talk," she said. "I thought we might spend a day together."

He glared at her, "Is this to yell at me about your new boy toy or should I say boy puppy?"

She tried not to let it get to her. She knew he was going through a lot of changes, but still.

"This is about you and me. I don't feel like we have spent near enough time together this summer."

"And who's fault is that? You've been shagging the werewolf more than spending time with me."

She closed her eyes feeling the urge to curse him. The further the pregnancy progressed the more agitated she became and unfortunately Draco had been the cause of a lot of her anger lately. She had thrown more stinging curses at him than she admittedly should've.

"Draco," she said. "Please."

"Well, it's not like I have anything better to do than watch the dunce fail at Charms again."

"Harry is not a dunce," She said feeling her temper getting the better of her.

"Then why is he repeating first year charms?"

"Might I remind you, you're close to failing Transfiguration."

And History of Magic. Though he had pulled up that grade. She really hadn't said too much to him about how poor he was doing with everything else that was going, but she had concerns. She knew he was bothered by McGonagall. It didn't help that you usually had to have an inclination towards Transfiguration to actually be good at it like Sirius or from what she saw Harry did.

He glared at her, "I told you it's that hag McGonagall's fault."

"It's a good thing she resigned then." She said. "Look, I know it's a difficult subject just like you should be aware your cousin had health issues last year and is behind."

"He's such a poser," Draco said. "Even his name shows he's a poser."

Narcissa gave him a weird look.

"He stole his name from Harry Potter." Draco stated.

She rolled her eyes. There had been talks about that being brought up when inventing Harry's new backstory. It had seemed cruel to give him a new name. After all, he had spent over eleven years with said name it would almost seem silly renaming him after over a decade of going by the name Harry. Besides, given the family tradition of naming offspring after celestial objects she doubted that Harry would like to be dubbed with a mouthful of a name. They had instead went with the story that Sirius had a one night stand with someone on the continent who happened to name Harry, Henry, but he went by the name Harry. It was simple enough and believable given the backstory that Potter loon had written for him as a man whore.

"Harry is a common name," She said to Draco with an eyeroll. "Not everyone can be privileged enough to be named after a star"

"And yet he's the Black heir…"

Narcissa rolled her eyes. "Let's not talk about your cousin, love. I really don't want to throw a stinging curse at you when we go out for hot chocolate."
Draco rolled his eyes. "You'll probably bring him up when I do something wrong."

"Is that really what you think?" She asked.

He shrugged.

"Draco."

"I don't want to talk about it, Mother. Let's get hot chocolate. You are probably in due for a sugar fix since I haven't seen you eating in the past fifteen minutes."
She could feel herself turning red. Though it was true she practically spent most of the day eating. That and peeing and craving sex. Lately the babies had been putting a lot of pressure on her bladder. Being comfortable was a thing of the past.

"Any suggestions for names?" She said trying to change the subject as they walked—or in her case, waddled towards the edge of the lodge into Bern's magical ally.

"Are you seriously asking me?" Draco said.

"You're their big brother; I don't see why not."

She had some ideas already, but she would love her son's input.

"Artemis isn't bad," He finally said. "Or I guess it should be Diana since that's her Roman counterpart."

"I prefer Artemis," she said since the Roman thing was most definitely a Malfoy thing. "I thought of maybe naming one after Aunt Bellatrix. Trixie could be cute for short."

He wrinkled his nose. "Trixie sounds like a muggle hooker."

Narcissa rolled her eyes, "Do I need to hit you with another, hex, Draco. Besides, how do you even know what a muggle hooker dresses like?"

"Well, you've been dressing like one lately when you're not dressed like a lesbian."

Needless to say, Draco got stung.

Maybe she should've bought more robes but quite honestly her increasing size made it quite difficult. Even those red ones she wore a couple of weeks ago were already fitting a little too tight for her liking. God, she had gotten huge there was no way she was ever getting in her old dress robes again, even if she somehow manage to shrink half a foot. At least Remus seemed to like her increasing size even if she was mortified by the current size of her everything.

"Muggle maternity clothes are much more comfortable than wizarding ones," She finally said.

He rolled his eyes. "And you cut your hair again."

She had shaved it off early this morning after Remus left. As she usually did most late nights/early mornings. It was already almost shoulder length, and it was only a little after one. She knew it would grow to her ass by evening, but lord that hair was hard to maintain. She knew Remus loved playing with it which was the only reason she wasn't annoyed about its length by the time bedtime rolled around.

"Try dealing with long hair when you're seven months pregnant with triplets," She said placing her hand on her bump.

Draco shook his head. "I still can't believe there are three of them."

"It is a little unbelievable," she said before putting in their order. "Now the last name…I thought maybe Venus."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Venus Black? Really."

"Any other suggestions?" She asked not really seeing what was wrong with Venus. It was even the Roman name—albeit, in this case it was okay with her since it dealt with a celestial object.

"Let me think about it," He said. "You weren't named after a celestial object."

"It still had ties to Greek mythology," She said. "Though I do hate the fact that Mother essentially named me after the first narcissist."

Draco laughed. "Nyx."

"What?"

"Nyx Black," Draco said. "It seems fitting for the third one."

Oddly, it did.

She was trying, Draco told himself, but he still didn't like it. And didn't like her most days.

It was hard rationalizing that this person was Mother. She was so different, yet the same he supposed.

Talking about names for his sisters seemed like something they'd do in the past. He still couldn't believe she wanted to name one of them Venus. That was an awful name, at least she liked the suggestion he made for Nyx.

Nyx Black sounded nice. Nicer than Draco Black.

He still wasn't used to being a bastard. And he was upset that Mother wouldn't let him talk to Father. He had tried to ask her about why she kept him from owling him this afternoon, but she didn't want to hear it.

Instead, she told him that it was on the list of forbidden topics much like he couldn't make fun of his lame cousin having to do firstie work. Though she was right what she said about him and Transfiguration.

Hard as he tried, he sucked in said class. He'd like to blame McGonagall but he knew it just wasn't her. He really hoped he had passed his course. He hadn't told Mother how he had bombed that exam. The stress had just gotten too much to him. And now he was here wasting his summer away while his mother shagged a werewolf of all things.

At least he was pretty sure Lupin was a werewolf. He had all the markers. Not that Mother would say one thing or the other, he just noticed that he didn't tutor precious Harry on the full moon and Mother was actually home for a change. Though did she give him any attention…

Nope, had to hang out with Sirius and Aunt Andi that day. Apparently, it was Aunt Bella's birthday of all things and they were mourning her again.

He really didn't know why. Aunt Bella was crazy.

He knew what Longbottom had said about her was true. Father more or less confirmed it, though told her she was his mother sister so he should be nice about her to Mother. However, it was a little ridiculous how much boohooing went on for that crazy loon as Father had once called he when he thought Mother wasn't near the vicinity of him.

Cousin Sirius looked particular distraught which was ridiculous considering he was even less of a relation that mother and of course they had made a whole affair of it by going to her crypt. Even the goody goody went with them. The only good thing about the whole ordeal was that Cousin Sirius's girlfriend came looking for him. She was a bit of a looker until he found out she was his aunt.

He then puked for even thinking that.

She was a veela though just like Mother. Except unlike Mother, Claire was delicate and dainty and didn't look like she could deck him. Though she did shoot him some sort of look when he said he was better at his cousin in dueling.

"Didn't your parents teach you it's uncouth to brag." She said, "Besides, I haven't heard anything about your studies."

"I don't need remedial classes like that…."

The look he was shot almost made Draco think he saw Mother. A very angry version of mother.

"A what, Draco?" Claire asked her eyes almost looking greyish at that moment.

"Never mind," he said.

"Keep it that way," she said. "Your cousin has been through a lot."

Been through a lot. What was that suppose to mean? As far as he knew Cousin Harry's cousin wasn't being ruined by being declared a bastard, having his mother transform into a veela, and having to watch said mother spend most of her time shagging with a werewolf. He was really tired of being ignored. He wanted Father.

Chapter 41 Preview: Right now the chapter I have planned next involves Sirius noticing something about Claire but I am debating adding another kid centric chapter instead.