Unknown Love

It was just after lunch when Draco arrived at the reunion clad in muggle attire as opposed to summer robes. While none disputed that he was quite handsome in the caargo shorts and two-tone blue striped polo shirt, the first person to see him, Pavarti Thomas, fainted dead out. But that might be because she thought he was dead, not because of what he was wearing.

The second person to see him, though, was Lavendar Jordan, along with her eight year old, Lacey. Lavendar did notice not only Draco, but also his attire, and sent Lacey to spread the word one way while she went the other. Lacey had heard Draco's name once or twice and knew he was supposed to be dead and being the gossip just as much as her mother, she readily complied.

Between the two of them, most of the people were informed of Draco's arrival and as he passed by, whispers were abounding. One of the few people who did not hear the whispering and talking was Hermione Granger, who was in the middle of a rousing game of "Duck, Duck, Goose" (as they had already played "Mother, May I" and were progressing toward "Freeze Tag"). By now, the whispers were moving onto her as well. Everyone there had seen DJ, and not known who the father was, only that he looked like a Malfoy, and the father was from America. They were all drawing their conclusions, and for once, the main part of those conclusions were right. No one could figure out exactly how any of it would have happened, though.

She was too into her game to notice him standing off to the side, watching with a smile on his face. That in itself set off a whole new surge of whispers. Hermione was then chosen as the goose, and got up to chase five year old Vince Goyle around the circle of kids (and a couple adults). Just after Vince plummeted into her former spot, she felt herself being pulled away by a pair of strong hands around her waist.

She whipped around just to come face to face with the one person she was beginning to expect to never see again, never mind there. The smile dropped from her face as she pulled out of his grip. "Malfoy," she acknowledged, her voice colder than ice. For a split second, his face registered a look of pain at his last name, especially coming from her lips. But then the second was gone and his features were imploring as he looked into her eyes.

"Hermione," he responded, his voice low and full of emotion.

"Why are you here, Draco?" she asked with a small shake of her head and tears glassing over her eyes.

"For you," he answered simply.

It was at this time that Hermione noticed that the eyes of every adult, and some children who wanted to know what was going on, were on her and Draco. Not wanting to be the center of attention, and not wanting their every word over heard, she glanced over to Hannah, who nodded to her that she could leave for a while and DJ would be taken care of. She then grabbed a hold of the front of Draco's shirt and clenched it in her hand, causing it to wrinkle under ther pressure and dragged him over to Hagrid's hut. When they got there she silenced the room so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"Draco," she started, but was then unceremoniously interrupted.

Draco pulled her close to him and held onto both of her hands. "Hermione Granger, I love you. I love our son. I want to be a family with you and DJ. Will you warry me?" He went to pull a ring out of his pocket but he didn't get to it due to the slap across his face.

"That is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard, Draco Malfoy. You do not love me or our son. If you did, you would have come to see us, you would have called us. At the very least you would have written. No, Draco. The only person you love is yourself." With this, she collapsed to the ground, her tears engulfing her. As she rocked back and forth with her head resting on her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs, Draco sat down next to her and tried to put an arm around her. Instead, she pulled away abruptly. "Do NOT touch me!" she spat out venemously.

He stayed seated next to her, pulling up his own knees and resting his head on his arms that were draped over his kness. He was looking at her crying form as he started to talk again. "Hermione, I do love you. Both of you." She started to cry even more. "I'm sorry that I hurt you so badly. I was just trying to surprise you. I quit my job and bought a house a couple of streets over from yours. I want to build a life with you and DJ. I never meant to cause you so much pain." By now there were tears leaking from his own eyes and she lifted her head up to glance over to him.

"Draco," she hiccoughed, "The reason you can hurt me so much is because I love you. But as much as I love you, for the life of me I don't want to. I know that I hurt you when I left, but you didn't just hurt me. You hurt our son. I know that he's supposedly too young to know the difference, but you're his father and you should have been there. And you chose not to be. I can't forgive that. I just hope that someday I'll stop loving you."

"Hermione, you don't mean that. You can't mean that. I love you and I want to marry you. You must know that isn't a decision I came upon lightly. I came back to England for you and DJ and I'm not going anywhere. I won't accept this. No matter what I have to do to get you to believe me and come back to me. I will do it. Anything you ask, it's yours."

"Anything?"

"Yes."

"Then leave. I don't want to be near you right now."

"But-"

"Draco, you just promised anything. How am I supposed to trust you if you're going to break a promise so soon?"

"Fine, I'll leave. But only for now. You will see me again soon. I'll send Ginny in for you." She nodded her head into her knees and he left the hut, his shirt wrinkled and his face tear-stained.

He walked through the crowds of happy people, his hands balled into fists in his pocket, one holding the ring that he hadn't gotten the chance to show her, never mind give her. When he found Ginny she was holding DJ as she danced around with him, her daughter and six year old Laney Jordan dancing in circles around them.

"Ginny, Hermione needs you right now."

"What did you do to her?" the redhead asked sharply, her tone of voice stopping the dancing girls who turned their head up to look to the adults.

"Nothing. Now can I please hold my child and you can go and tend to your friend." She looked at him with a combination of suspicion and contempt. "I'm not going to kidnap him, I just want to hold him. DJ is my son and I've held him for less than five minutes. I', surrounded by people who are loyal to Hermione and I'm sure they's all be willing to cause me great bodily harm if I even thought of trying to get away with him. She needs you right now, and I need to hold him."

She could see the honesty in his eyes and decided to give him his son to hold. "If you hurt either of them any worse than you already have, I will hurt you back, Malfoy," she promised.

"I expect nothing less," he answered as he took his son into his arms. She walked away toward the hut as Draco bounced DJ in his arms cooing into his ear. "Are you all going to spend the whole day staring at me or are you going to go about your business?" he asked those surrounding him in a conversational manner.