Three
September 2nd 2017:
“Malfoy was just seen in the atrium.” Hermione took a deep breath. This would be the first time she’ll have seen him since 2000. “Are you alright Hermione?”
“Yes. I know that logically he’ll want to hex me into oblivion but I am the Minister For Magic so technically that would be illegal.”
“Minister, Auror Draco Malfoy is here to see you.” Hermione took a deep breath and motioned for him to be let in.
He looked exactly like she imagined he would. Tall, taller than the last time she’d seen him. His hair was perfectly in place. He liked to keep it short so no one would compare him to his father. He wore all black, like always.
“Minister Granger” His tone was strictly professional.
“Auror Malfoy.”
“Is there a reason your fan club is here?”
“Protection”
“Support,” Harry and Ginny said at the same time. Malfoy ignored them.
“I was told that you have a case you need help me with. Asked for me specifically.” Hermione couldn’t tear her eyes off him. Harry saved her from herself.
“You weren’t called here to help with a case. You’re a person of interest in a case of ours.” Malfoy’s eyes moved from Hermione’s to Harry’s.
“Potter, I’ve been in France for the last sixteen years. How could I be a person of interest in a case taking place in Britain?”
“It’s not you. But your family, your father specifically.”
“In case you don’t remember, Potter,” Malfoy spat out like he did as a child. “You are the one who made sure my father was stuck in Azkaban for the rest of his life.”
“And I saved your arse from following him.” Malfoy’s jaw clenched.
“Oh yes. I forgot about the great Savior, Saint Potter. Taking it upon himself to save everyone. Even the ones who didn’t ask for it.”
“Enough.” The two men looked at Hermione and stopped their bickering. “Malfoy, I have something I need to tell you that is relevant to the case. You are not going to be happy with me, but you are to remain silent until I have finished.” Malfoy looked at the Minister confused, but curious. “My daughter has been kidnapped. Your father and any contact or colleagues he may have are suspects because she is your daughter. She turned sixteen this past August, born in 2001. I found out I was pregnant in January of that year. She, as well as most of the wizarding world, believe her father to be a muggle.” He was silent. To Hermione, the only noise in the room was her heartbeat, which was currently going faster than ever before. She was worried he could hear it and would be able to tell just how nervous she is to be around him.
“What the fuck?” Understandable first words for a man who found out he has a sixteen year old daughter that he’s never met before. “Potters,” he paused and looked at Ginny and Harry, who were nervously moving their eyes between their friend and Malfoy. “I am going to kindly ask you to leave, once. After that, it won’t be anywhere near nice.” The couple looked to their friends, getting a nod of approval before stepping outside.
“We’ll be just outside the door.” Ginny said before closing it shut.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Draco asked her. “You kept my child from me. My daughter. For sixteen years. You lied to her and the world about who she was. Are you truly that heartless that you let your daughter grow up without a father? Without having any real clue as to who her father is?”
“I had no choice. You left me. I wasn’t about to crash your wedding.” Hermione made sure to enunciate the word wedding very clearly. “I wasn’t going to embarrass myself for someone who kept me on the side, and hide me from their world.”
“I wasn’t hiding you from my world, I was hiding from yours.” Draco recoiled a little at his words. He didn’t like thinking about how much of a coward he’d been. “I was trying to protect you and your reputation.”
“Protect me from what? The war was over. Anyone that mattered, wouldn’t have given a flying fuck about our relationship. It was you that cared so much about no-one knowing you were fucking a muggle-born.”
“It wasn’t about you being a muggle-born. It was about me being a death eater and you up for minister. I was protecting your future. I left so you could reach your full potential. If you had a public relationship with a convicted death eater-“
“You were pardoned.”
“Still a death eater. I had been getting threats for just being in the Auror program. What would have happened if people found out you were involved with me? You never would have become Minister.”
“Don’t you dare pretend that you did what you did for me. If you truly cared for me, you would have told me the truth. You know how much the truth matters to me.”
“That’s funny coming from the woman who hid a child for sixteen years.”
“I had no choice! You were the one who left me. I’ve already told you. I wasn’t going to go running after someone who didn’t want me.”
“If I had known you were pregnant,” Hermione cut him off.
“Does that really change anything? You married Astoria! I had to have been your woman on the side.”
“You being pregnant changes everything! I wouldn’t have gotten married! Or even if I did, I would have taken care of you and my daughter.” He paused. “Maybe if I had been in her life, she wouldn’t have been taken.” Hermione slapped him.
“How dare you say that! I have done nothing but love and protect my daughter! I have worked hard everyday of my life to ensure that she has the life she deserves. You have no idea what the lot of sixteen years of my life have been like, because you left me. You left me for the perfect pure blood wife.”
“Because I had too! Merlin, Hermione.” He paused. “You once told me that you knew that there are things about the wizarding world that you do not understand, and that you may never understand. This is one of those things.”
“Then explain it to me! Explain it to me how you got off fucking me and than married Astoria.” Draco was fuming. He loved Hermione, he truly did. There were things she just didn’t understand about the pureblood world.
“It was an arranged marriage, Hermione.” The use of her first name meant he was getting angry. He only used her real name when he was serious. “Daphne Greengrass, was supposed to be married off to a respectable pureblood. Even after the war, some families of the sacred twenty-eight wanted to keep tradition. When she started dating Lavender Brown and came out to her family, she was disowned. Which meant the responsibility of marrying fell to her sister, Astoria. My mother was approached by the Greengrass family and arranged a marriage for me. She thought she was helping me.” Draco paused. “Malfoy heirs have to be married by their twenty-first birthday. My mother thought she was ensuring my future. Once she finalized the contract, it was magically binding. You can’t break them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this then?”
“Because what would it have done? I’d still be stuck marrying Astoria. I thought that if I ended things, if I broke your heart, you could hate me. You could move on and be happy with someone else.” Hermione shook her head.
“You shouldn’t have made the decision for me. You should have told me the truth. Magical binding arranged marriage contracts, while I may not understand the need for them, I would have understood the tradition behind them. It’s one of the many aspects of pureblood culture I read about when we started dating.” It was silent. Neither had anything else to say.
The silence was interrupted by a knock on the door and then Ginny Weasly walking through with her husband, her brother, and her sister in law behind her.
“It was oddly quiet. We were wondering if you’d murdered each other.”
“I’d like to actually meet my daughter before I die.” Hermione felt the jolt of pain he wanted her to feel. He was angry and upset, and had every right to be. Hermione knew this day would come eventually but she hoped to have Lyra here as a buffer.
“Ron’s just come back from Platform 9 ¾ . He led the initial sweep of the area. There is no tract of Lyra’s magical signature. We don’t think she ever made it to the platform.”
“We should talk to her friends. Anyone she would have sought after when arriving at the Platform, we need to see if anyone saw her or saw anything.” Draco was back to being Malfoy, the french Auror. “I’ll also need a list of everyone who knows that,” He paused. “Lyra?” Hermione nodded.
“After the constellation.” Malfoy’s lips turned into a small smile.
“Anyways, I’ll need a list of everyone who knows that Lyra is my daughter.”
“It’s a small list.” Ginny told him.
“It’s me, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Molly, Arthur, Katie, and” Hermione paused and looked at Ginny.
“And who?”
“Pansy..” If Draco Malfoy showed his emotions, his jaw would have dropped.
“You told Pansy?” He asked calmly, which was scarier than if he’d been angry.
“I did not tell her. She found out.”
“How exactly?”
“Abby is Lyra’s best friend.”
“My niece is friends with my daughter?” There’s the anger. It was very clear in his voice. “Remind me to murder Pansy when this is all over.”
“I asked her not to tell you. Don’t blame her.” Malfoy decided to pocket the information away for later. He might need to blackmail or get revenge on Pansy.
“Does Blaise know?”
“No. Only Pansy.”
“How exactly did she find out?”
“The birthmark.” Malfoy smirked. “The Blasted Malfoy birthmark.”
“You used to love mine.” Hermione rolled her eyes at him, and tried to hide her blush.
“We’re off topic.” Harry spoke up. “We’ve already contacted McGonagall to meet with Lyra’s friends.”
“I need a list of them. Maybe one of their parents knows something.”
“I don’t think any of her friend’s parents would know anything.”
“Just give me a list, Granger.”
“Abby and Damion Zabini, James Potter, Landon Mclaggen, Lorelai Greengrass-Brown, and her boyfriend is Perseus Nott.”
“Oh bloody hell.” Malfoy looked at Hermione with a disgruntled look on his face. “Perseus Nott is my godson.”
“But not related by blood.”
“Not that that’s a deal breaker when it comes to Purebloods.” Ginny attempted to joke but it was not appreciated by the room. “Just trying to diffuse the tension.”
“Weaseltte, don’t try and help.”
“You don’t tell me what to do Ferret.”
“Enough. We need to stay focused.” Harry drew the attention to him. “This case has a large problem of conflicts of intrest. Lyra is my niece as well as Ron’s. I am the Head Auror and he is my second. We have to do this investigation by the books. Hermione, you are her mother and the Minister. I personally think we need to bring people on who are not biased.”
“Find someone in this office that doens’t love Lyra.” Katie finally spoke up. “Not to mention, since she is the Minister’s daughter, everyone will have a conflict of intrest.”
“Harry is right though. We need an outside perspective on the case.” Hermione went to her desk. “However, Katie is also right. Everyone in the Auror department knows her.”
“She interns with the Auror department during the summers. Mostly just filing papers and going on coffee runs, but they still know her.”
“We can call in my team from France.” He looked at Hermione. “You’ll need to give the order but my team recently finished a case. As of now, we’re free.”
“I’ll contact the minister.” Hermione wrote out a quick note. “Katie, can you send this please?”
“Of course” Katie took it and headed to the international main room.
“We do need to announce this to the Auror department. We should have all men available working the case. This is an act of terrisism, Hermione. Someone has been sending you threats and kidnapped your daughter. The Auror department needs to be informed.” Harry stated.
“We need to add on to her Auror protection as well. We’ll need people outside her house at all times. People with her at all times.”
“I do not need bodyguards.”
“Hermione. Part of my job is to protect you. We made a vow to not let our friendship affect our work. As Head Auror, it is my duty to protect the Minister. You will have an Auror squad with you at all times. If you receive any more threats, you will tell me. Any suspicious looks, you will report it. You are not to leave your office, without an Auror with you. You are not to leave your house without an Auror with you. I do not care about whatever you are about to say. You are in danger. Your family is in danger. I have the power to go over your head and order these things, when your life is threatened. Am I understood?”
“Yes.” While Hermione did not appreciate this side of Harry as his friend, she knew as his boss it was a good thing he took his job seriously. His wife on the other hand, was loving this side of her husband.
“Now. Let’s go brief the department.”