Adverse Reactions

Draco stared up into Hermione’s honey brown eyes. The shock on his face was apparent. He had never thought that his handwriting from so many years ago would have given him away. Then it dawned on him. He had written that letter in their fourth year at Hogwarts, twenty-two years ago. She had kept that letter for twenty-two years. Something inside of him compelled him to look at Hermione, to examine her face, her eyes.. . Every part of her. The look on her face was a mixture of confusion, hope, sadness and something that Draco could not recognize.

The choice was simple. The question was simple. She asked him why he was still in love with her. But Draco, despite the fact that he had thought about her every day and every night for nineteen years, he still didn’t know how he was supposed to tell her. He had kept this a secret from everyone for almost twenty-three years and know, after his wife had killed her husband and their children had overcome the differences they had faced back in their time, Draco still could not find the words to answer her.

It was the moment of truth. He could either tell her that he loved her. Or he could tell her something to make her hate him. She should hate him. After he had made her school life a living hell and then his family had tortured her.. .could her really admit to her that he had thought about her every day of his life. That he loved her.

“I.. .still love you.” Those three words were the hardest three words Draco had ever tried to say. Hermione was speechless. Very speechless. She had expected an excuse, a lie.. .anything but the truth.

“What did you say?” Her words were hesitant and filled with an awe Draco could not place. This was his moment to come clean.

“I said.. .I love you. Hermione, I always have. Ever since you punched me in our third year, I have been drawn to everything about you. I wanted to tell you.. .I wanted you to know everything. But then I saw Ron kiss you, and I saw how happy he made you and I knew I could never be that guy. I’m Harry’s biggest enemy. I made your life torture for years. Everything about the big loving supportive family, I couldn’t give you that. So I just followed my blood and married Astoria Greengrass. I had no idea that all of this would happen. I am so so so so so sorry Hermione.”

Draco looked away from her. She had started to tear up slightly. He took a deep breath and waited. But her next question wasn’t about his love for her.

“Why.. .did you save me?”

“Because I couldn’t let him do that to you. I had no idea you would be in the cemetery. I went, like I did every day after work and went to see my mother. I thought I was alone until I heard you scream. I had only heard that sound a few times in my life, but I knew it was you. When I finally found you, he had beaten you badly and he was on top of you. I couldn’t let that kind of abuse happen to you. So I did what I could. But you were bleeding and you were pregnant. I couldn’t leave you there, but at the same time I couldn’t just show up at St. Mungo’s with you being raped and bleeding. Everyone would think I did it. After all, my wife killed your husband, why wouldn’t the other Malfoy try to finish the job? So I hid under the cloak and left you the message so that you might know, whoever I was, that I was sorry. If I had watched Astoria’s actions more closely.. .maybe Ron would still be alive and none of this would have happened.”

Hermione was silent. Tears streamed down her face, but there were no sobs. Draco felt terrible and turned his face away. He could feel every secret he had ever hidden from the world being torn from his body. Here he was, telling the woman he had admired that he loved her. He couldn’t expect her to even think he was sincere. He was trapped. He could feel her eyes, filled with anger and sorrow, bearing into him and pulling every emotion from his soul. Nothing was spoken for minutes. Finally, she broke the silence.

“Draco. There is something I have to tell you.” Draco looked at her. She bit her lips apprehensively and took a deep breath. He could sense the intensity filling the air thick enough to send shivers down his spine.

“Draco. I love you.”

Draco was dumbfounded. He stared back at her.

“What! But I.. .”

“But you! You are everything I have always wanted. You had power and prestige and a family name. Money, honor.. .everything that I didn’t have growing up. And you loved me. I knew it. Every time I turned around, there you were sneering and making sly jokes about me, my teeth, my lineage. Everything you did focused on making fun of me!” Her outburst almost made Draco fall out of his chair.

“And you loved that I was a crazy fucking asshole?”

“No, I loved that you wanted me.”

“How would you know that I wanted you. I was a bastard. I spent all my time making your life horrible.”

“I noticed a lot more than you think I did Draco.” Draco’s eyes narrowed and he looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Yes, you would sneer at me, but you would look at me. When I was in the library studying, there you were, flirting with every girl you could and at the same moment, you would look past them and stare at me, just hoping I would look up and see you. You would stare at me in classes until I was so nervous I would have to look back at you. Then you would glare at me. When I would look at you in potions, you would make a snide comment about how I wanted you. I even noticed you would fly past the quid ditch stand I was sitting in, just to glare at me. The catch to knowing there was more to your hatred of me, was simply that. You didn’t hate me. You just hid your feelings by making me hate you.”

“You’ve known?”

“I’ve always known Draco Malfoy. What I want to know, is why you never wanted to know how I felt about you.”

Draco simply stared at her. He was in almost as much shock as she had been moments before. She continued.

“Draco, when you stared at me, I smiled. I wanted your attention, your affections. Everything about you made me just want you to like me even more. Every time I beat you at something, I fed off of the attention you gave me. Your confidence and prestige made me want to know what kind of a life I could get. I wanted to be the black sheep that tainted the blood of your white-blooded family. The thrill of knowing that our houses would come to a downfall was the satisfaction of all my childhood fantasies. Draco, I have wanted you for as long as I can remember.”

Hermione flushed a bright shade of red and adverted his gaze. She had spilt her heart out to Draco Malfoy. She had sworn to herself that she would never admit this to him, but now, everything had changed and they both knew that the other one still held the feelings of youth. There was nothing to be said that had not already been spoken and there were few secrets to be contained that they had not already revealed. Finally, Draco broke the silence as he spotted Rose and Emilia walking back from the apothecary.

“Hermione. There is something I wanted to talk to you about.” His question was slightly apprehensive, but it caught her attention. “I want to know, if we can put aside our differences. Scorpius has become very very close to your daughter. He tells me about her in his letters and just last night he was talking about how horrible he felt when he found out that it was his mother that killed her father. He thinks so highly of her and by extension, you. I want to know. Can we at least be friends?”

Draco’s question was legitimate. Hermione knew he was sincere. Rose had sent letters about how her, Albus and Scorpius had become friends. Together they had study groups, explorations of the castle and were already learning more magic than they were permitted to know. Her and Scorpius competed for better grades than each other and both of them had to feed Albus the answers to his homework. Rose was fabulous at transfiguration, Herbology and Charms and Scorpius was great at Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions. All three of them spent their time visiting Hagrid and running around trying things they had never tried before. Hermione could sometimes see a little bit more of Harry in Rose and more Ron in Albus. Everything was a reconstruction of their first year at Hogwarts, excluding the who Voldemort trying to take over the world thing. Her answer was obvious.

“Yes Draco. For the sake of ourselves.. .and our children. I feel like we should make ourselves civil to one another.” She could see relief flooding into Draco’s already pale face.

“Great, by the way. Here comes your daughter.. .and the food!”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

For the next hour, Draco and Hermione chatted away about their lives. Draco told about his mother and his travels, about Scorpius’s birth and how the house-elves ran the house. Hermione and Rose sat, fascinated by all of the inner workings of the Malfoy house. Emilia even spoke up about how her last master had beaten her every time he got drunk and finally he had given her a set of clothes and dismissed her. She went to the house-elf relocation center and that is where Draco saved her.

Hermione recounted Rose, Hugo and Fred’s births and how they were expecting the fourth child. She talked briefly about losing the baby and then she talked about the Weasley family. Rose threw in comments about all the children and Hermione recounted things about Harry as well. The lunch was a success and the two families discovered things about each other that they didn’t know before.

Finally the afternoon was coming to an end. Then came the matter of who was going to pay for the meal.

“Don’t worry about it Hermione, I’ve got it completely covered.” Draco tried, but Hermione turned him down.

“I invited you, so I am paying.” Her statement made him smile. She was still as independent as her remembered her.

“Yeah, well, I think I owe you enough that I should be able to pay for a meal.”

“Nonsense, I’ve got it covered and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

“But.. .” But before Draco could get another word out, Hermione had jumped up and run to the counter to pay the bill.

Draco smiled and looked at Rose Weasley. She looked just like her mother, apart from the red hair. He smiled.

“Alright, since your mother won’t let me help out with the bill, I’m going to give you a present, ok?” Rose looked up curiously. Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin purse and withdrew thirty galleons. He handed the money to Rose who looked at it like it was a buried treasure.

“Mr. Malfoy sir.. .I don’t know what to say!” She had never seen that much money before. Draco smiled.

“This is what I want you to do. I want you to put fifteen of those in your mother’s bag when she isn’t looking and then I want you to keep the other fifteen galleons and buy yourself anything you want.” The smile on her face was priceless and Draco felt almost like he was helping the little girl out with her life.

“Thank you Mr. Malfoy! I know just what to spend it on!” And with that, the eleven year old threw her arms around Draco and hugged him tightly. Taken aback, Draco didn’t know how to react. When she let him go, he looked at her closely. Something was very odd about this girl. Something special.


“Tell Scorpius I said hi ok?” Draco nodded. She turned to walk away, but he stopped her.

“What are you going to spend the money on Rose?”

“I want to buy Albus and Scorpius Christmas presents. We like to go to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and get a bunch of stuff to drive Mr. Filch insane.” She grinned a mischievous grin and Draco just laughed.

“You may be more like your parents than you think you are.” Draco smirked. ‘or more like Fred and George.’ he thought to himself. Rose smiled back, and then said something that would change Draco’s life forever.

“Mr. Malfoy. I’m not upset that Mrs. Malfoy killed my dad. Scorpius always said that she was an evil conniving bitch and this just proved it to all three of us. I hope that we can all be friends.” And with that the young girl ran to catch her mother at the door. Hermione gave him one last look and the two disapparated.

Draco looked at the place where they were just standing and smiled to himself. He picked up his winter coat and threw it across his broad shoulders and looked down at Emilia. She smiled up at him, rubbing her stomach a little.

“Lets go grab a warm drink at the Cauldron before we head home. I think I should find out what is going on at Hogwarts. I’m sure Hannah is working this afternoon.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Emilia and Draco arrived back at the mansion after several hours of very exhilarating conversation with Hannah Longbottom. It felt good to be home again, but Draco could not stop thinking about Hermione and the conversations they had earlier. Everything from her outburst to how she described her family made Draco feel like he finally had a true friend. Maybe more. Whatever the outcome, he was very excited to be home and tell Scorpius about the new friendship he had with Rose’s mother. That’s when Draco noticed that something was off. The front door of the mansion was slightly ajar.

“Emilia, why don’t you go through the kitchen entrance. Something doesn’t seem right to me.” Emilia nodded and Draco drew his wand and entered the house. Everything in the foyer seemed undisturbed and there was an uneasy silence in the house. He shut the front door behind him and walk slowly upstairs, making sure that he watched every corner and watched behind him. That’s when he heard it. Scorpius screamed, a blood curdling scream that would have made any parent weak at the knees, but Draco didn’t give in to his emotions. Draco knew immediately that even though Scorpius was in trouble and that he had to help him. He had to know what he was up against before he just ran in and started firing off curses. He approached Scorpius’s room, rather quickly and walked toward the door. That’s when he heard Scorpius let out another blood curdling scream.

“Lucius, that is enough. Don’t kill the boy.” The voice sounded very familiar to Draco, but what was more horrifying was the sight of the snake head cane that had just been withdrawn from over Scorpius’s head. Draco could see his son squirming on the floor in extreme agony and held his breath trying to judge how many people might be in the room. It was almost unbearable to watch his own child being tortured.

“WHERE IS SHE!” The familiar voice yelled again, kicking the small boy. He cringed and covered his face.

“I don’t know! I don’t know who your talking about!”

“DON’T PLAY DUMB WITH THEM SCORPIUS HYPERION MALFOY, YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHO THEY WANT. WHERE IS THE HALF-BREED WEASEL!” Lucius’s voice rang out and Scorpius again let out a scream as the curse was placed over his body again.

“We know she is here Scorpius. She flooed to Malfoy Manor. We heard her say it!” Another voice said. By this point, Draco had heard three different voices.

“Why do we need the girl Jerome? We have the Mudblood, what do we need the girl for?” The familiar voice asked, the other voice named Jerome responded.

“We may have the Mudblood, but the half-breed saw everything and she can report us. We can’t let her go. AND GET RID OF THAT DAMN CAT!” That was the first time that Draco noticed that there had been a cat screaming in the background. He watched as the man he recognized as Henry Collins walked across the room and grabbed an orange tabby cat off of the shelf and threw it into Scorpius’s closet and slamming the door.

“NOW WHERE IS THE FUCKING HALF-BREED!” Jerome yelled.

“DON’T CALL HER THAT!” Scorpius’s outburst made Lucius take a step back and out of Draco’s line of sight.

“What did you just say boy?” Lucius asked, but Scorpius glared at his grandfather.

“She is a girl. A beautiful girl and it doesn’t matter who her parents are. Stop calling her a half-breed.”

“See look. The little bastard isn’t even on our side. All of Astoria’s hard work is corrupted in this little faggot!” The familiar voice said to Jerome.

“Kill him.” Jerome said. Draco couldn’t take it anymore. Casting a series of stunning spells, Draco rushed into the bedroom and knocked down the man known as Jerome. Looking around the surroundings he watched as Henry came towards him, but he was too quick and disarmed him. The biggest issue, was Lucius whacked him smartly with his cane and then disarmed him. Draco wheeled around and punched his father in the face taking his wand.

“SCORPIUS! GET OUT OF HERE!” Draco shouted. Scorpius tried to run away, but Henry grabbed him fiercely.

“Oh, no you don’t boy!” But Scorpius kicked him fiercely in the balls and ran and grabbed his father’s wand from off the floor. He watched as Henry Collins was bent over in agony and his father and grandfather were brawling on the floor. Lucius still had his cane and was attempting to curse Draco. There was only one spell Scorpius could think of that could make all of this end.

“Morsmordre!” Out of Draco Malfoy’s wand came the image of a great glowing green skull with an enormous serpent flowing out of the mouth of it. Scorpius stared at the mark. He had read about this, but he had never seen it before and definitely never conjured it before.

“YOU FOOL! LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!” But Lucius’s words were too late. He had just stunned Draco when Harry Potter and several of the aurors appeared in the bedroom, all with wand drawn and casting hexes around the room. Harry ran over to Scorpius and stared at the boy.

“Prior Incantato.” Harry’s wand forced the wand the young boy was holding to emit a faint smoke of a skull and serpent. One of the aurors who weren’t rounding up the stunned rebellion members glanced over.

“He’s just a kid. This spell is way beyond his years.”

“Where did you learn that spell?” Harry demanded. Scorpius panicked.

“My mother taught it to me. But Dad says that I should conjure it when I need an Auror’s assistance immediately. Please. They tried to kill me and my father. Please. Help him.”

Harry looked down at the boy. He watched as the other Aurors took the rebellion into custody.

“When they revive him. Bring Draco to my office. I’m taking his son there for questioning right now.” The other Auror nodded and disapparated. Harry took a hold of Scorpius’s arm and together the two headed for the Ministry of Magic Auror’s Department.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

After everyone had left the house, Jeffery, a middle-aged house elf and the father of Emilia’s baby, waddled into the room and opened the door to the closet. The orange tabby cat slinked out of the room and frantically paced toward the door.

“Are you alright Ms. Weasley?” Jeffery’s voice was shuddering.

The orange tabby cat curved it’s spine. The paws morphed into a set of pure white hands. Slowly, the tabby cat transformed and became a very scared version of Rose Weasley. She straightened up and searched for her wand. When she found it, she lifted herself up and ran to the fireplace. Grabbing a handful of green powder, she shouted into the fireplace.

“Ministry of Magic Auror Department!” And with that Rose Weasley disappeared.